


Frozen kingdoms

by SANS_TITRE



Category: Frozen (2013), Wreck-It Ralph (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Human, Blood and Violence, Drama, Emotional Manipulation, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Friendship, Frozen Heart, Lies, Loneliness, Magic, Multi, Prison, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 20:00:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SANS_TITRE/pseuds/SANS_TITRE
Summary: Ralph is a child born with the power to break any object with his bare hands. But the kingdom of the Sugar Coast sees his powers as a potential threat and sends guards to imprison him. He spends twenty years behind bars, wondering what he did wrong, dreaming to escape.Meanwhile, Elsa tries to learn to control the ice powers that she was born with, with the help of her younger sister. But after the death of their parents, it becomes more and more difficult, and Anna is growing distant. Will she be able to prevent a war between the Kingdom of the Sugar Coast and Arendelle, or will the continent dwelve into chaos?





	1. The Dragon's Lair

Ralph was the first born in a family of farmers. It hadn't taken his parents a long time to realize that their son wasn't any ordinary boy. He grew up faster than any other children, with strong arms and huge hands, even at a young age. When he got angry, the boy was capable of breaking things that required adult strength, and came out unharmed.  
They did their best to hide the anomaly, but when the authorities came to take their son, they didn't resist. The guards said they would be taking him to a special camp, with other human beings born with magic powers. Sadly, those deviants were dangerous and needed to be kept away from the ordinary citizens. The orders came from the king himself.  
Ralph was a five-year old, at the time. And the only thing he remembered, was that his mother was eight-month pregnant when he was taken away, which meant that he had a brother he would never meet.  
The camp was a grey prison called " _The Dragon's lair_ ". He had a room that he had to share with five other deviants, with no more than two beds. They were fed twice a day, in quite large portions. He heard that he was supposed to find the food disgusting, but he quickly got used to it.  
The place was filthy, and heavily guarded.

Each convict was given golden bracelets at their arrival. Gold had the property to block their magic powers completly. Despite that fact, it was a really violent place. With nothing to do and the frustration accumulated, the convicts broke into fist figts every day or so. The guards did nothing to stop them.  
Ralph quickly learned how to defend himself, and when he grew older, he learned how to fight dirty.  
As the years passed by, he got impossibly tall, about nine feet at anyone's guess. He was also incredibly large, his hands much bigger than everyone else's at the Dragon's lair. He had unruly, spiky auburn hair, and a beard that he was allowed to shave once a month. He had a large nose and thick eyebrows that made him look angry all the time.  
Despite his intimidating appearance, the other convicts loved to make fun of him whenever they could, something that made him instantly furious. He lost his temper at the slightest offense, and usually lost the fight that came afterwards. He was plagued with a natural clumsiness that nothing seemed able to cure. And it got worse when he was angry.  
When he wasn't fighting, he was a rather placid person, whose favorite activity was to gaze at passerbys through the window. There was only one road in sight, and it was pretty far away from the fortress that they were locked into. But his sight was excellent, and he loved nothing more than to imagine what could be these people's lives based on their appearance.

He had very little knowledge of the outside world. Apart from what little memory he had from his childhood, he heard the other convict's experience, along with rumors about what could be happening on the outside. Sometimes, the guards would share stories publicly. It usually got everyone's attention. The convicts all gathered in the main room, sat and listened in silence for boring tales of buying vegetables on the market. It was their main event, and they were always hungry for more.  
Another of their favorite activity was to explain to each other what their power consisted in, before they were restrained by the golden bracelets. Most of them were dangerous, aggressive powers, that had threatened the peace of the kingdom when the convicts were using them. But some of them - most of the younger convicts like Ralph, had been taken away before they had enough time to threaten anything or anyone. Some of them didn't even know what their powers did - they had been arrested too soon to find out.  
Ralph was one of them - apart from being tall and having big hands, he didn't know what his power did. Others around him could control fire, run at super speed, move objects without touching them, turn into animals. Their bodies were often affected by these unused powers. Some had horns, strangely shaped legs, animal features, off-colour skin tones.  
Besides those little moments of amusement, Ralph's life was boring and painful. He wasn't exactly angry at his parents for abandoning him - mostly because he remembered so little about them that it all felt pointless.

Twenty years passed in silence. Twenty years, and he had accomplished nothing. He didn't really have any friends. He was friendly enough with a few of the convicts, but that was it. The Dragon's lair was like a sterile soil that nothing grew onto. It was a wasteland of bored minds, desperate for something to happen, anything.

And something eventually happened.

It was in the middle of one of the hottest summers in years. Ralph was resting on the floor of the courtyard, wondering for how long he could stare at the sun without blinking. But a storm of clouds obstructed his view in a matter of seconds, and began pouring snow. The temperature dropped about twenty degrees, and the wind blew like a wolf howling.

'What the hell's going on, now?' Said one of the guards, trying to brush the snow of his armor.

Ralph got up, keeping his head up. Snow at this time of the year? Was it a thing that could happen?  
He ran back inside to inform the other convicts of the strange phenomenon, but they already knew.  
It took the guards two days to bring enough blankets for everyone. Many of the convicts were sick at this point, but no doctors were ever allowed in the Dragon's lair. Many convicts had died over the years because of this law, and despite heavy protest, it had never changed.  
With the upcoming weeks, the food became rarer. The guards gave a few explanations, along the lines of "hard to move around with all the snow", and promised that the situation would get better soon.  
The truth was that the government had run out of budget to make the camp work properly. There was not enough food to feed both the guards and the convicts, so the guards tended to keep all the food for themselves.  
The convicts were limited to one meal a day, then to one meal every two days. There was no one to clear the snow that was accumulating in the courtyard, no one to clean the rooms and the beds. The prisoners were dying one by one.  
Ralph had always been sturdy, and didn't fear the cold. The prison's uniform had always been too short for him, due to his unnatural height, so he was used to having most of his skin exposed, even during winters.  
But he knew he didn't have a future in this desolate environnment. The food would never come back - even if he avoided illness, he would simply die from starvation, with the rest of the convicts.

So a month after the beginning of the snow storm, he took one big decision. He was going to escape the Dragon's lair, and discover freedom.

Or he would die trying.


	2. The Coronation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I describe Anna and Elsa's backstory. It might look like I'm just rewriting the beginning of the movie, but since it's an alternate universe, a lot of things change

In the main hall of a huge castle, two little girls were playing and laughing in the snow. It wasn't the first time for them, but it would be the last.  
Elsa tripped and accidentally hit her sister in the head. Anna fell onto a lump of snow, unconscious. One of her hair strands turned white. Elsa cried in panic, and called for her parents. They rushed into the main hall, cursing themselves mentally for not being able to prevent this accident.  
Anna was brought to the doctor, but there was nothing he could do. He said it would have to heal on its own. There was simply no way to predict what a magic injury would do to a young girl like this.  
She woke up the next morning with a bad headache, but otherwise unharmed. When she asked her parents where Elsa was, they replied she was gone. They had built a special school in the kingdom of the Sugar Coast. Elsa would stay there for a few years and learn how to control her powers. Therefore, she would never harm anyone anymore.  
Anna agreed that it was a good idea, but missed her sister very much. She didn't understand why Elsa couldn't simply learn to control her powers in the castle. She wondered what that school looked like, and if her sister didn't feel too lonely, out there.  
She knew _she_ did. She wasn't often allowed outside, for safety reasons, and even though it was dangerous, she missed playing in the snow with her sister's powers.  
Two years later, Elsa was suddenly back into the castle. Anna had just finished her weekly piano practice when she saw her mother storm into the main hall, cradling an injured child in a torn uniform. Her father was quick to follow. He seemed absolutely furious. She ran downstairs to meet them, curious about the child that her mother was carrying. She screamed when she realized it was her sister. She asked for explanations, but was sent to bed with no answer.  
The following weeks, she managed to piece the elements together. Elsa's ship had been attacked by pirates on their way to the school. They had slaughtered her entire escort, but she had managed to hide on their ship and survive by stealing food from the barrels. Once the pirate ship set sail on the Sugar Coast's main port, she escaped and wandered for a while, in search of a way to get back home. But the authorities had taken her for a regular deviant on the run and sent her directly to the Dragon's lair.

What exactly happened there, she refused to say. Her parents could guess she had been beaten, perhaps humilated. Maybe even worse - she was a very beautiful young girl after all.  
Whatever the truth, Elsa refused to ever talk about it. She couldn't even speak at all for several weeks after coming home, and long after that it was still clear that she had been deeply traumatized.  
She kept golden bracelets to contain her powers. Her parents tried to make her take them out from time to time, but her ice powers were completly out of control, and getting stronger each time.  
That was until Anna came in. She didn't really understand why her sister was so afraid all the time, but she knew she needed help. They trained together - Elsa would take off the bracelets slowly, and Anna would provide words of encouragement while the ice spread around them.  
Elsa never really managed to control her powers, but they were less violent when Anna was around.  
Despite this new bond that they were slowly forging, Anna could tell as they grew up that something was fractured in their relationship. Whatever it was that happened at the Dragon's lair, it had changed her sister in a way that they could never quite understand.

Years had passed. With time, Elsa had learned to deal with her inner demons. She had trouble socializing and an inexplicable fear of men - fear or disgust, it was hard to tell. But her life hadn't suffered any major tragedy since her childhood, and she felt strong enough to assume a royal position when her parent's reign ended.

Her parents died when she reached her twentieth birthday.

How to describe loss to someone who has never experienced it? Elsa felt that all the progress she had made had all been for nothing. She felt like the safe environment that she had taken so much time to build had suddenly shattered under her feet. She didn't know what to do, or where to go.  
Anna dealt with sorrow in her own way, by leaving the castle during the day, and walking endlessly in the city. But she didn't see the faces of the people she crossed, and at the end of the day, she remembered nothing of what she had done.  
That was until she met Hans. He was a handsome gentleman - she met him once, but she didn't forget him. In the darkness of her days, he was like a tiny lantern of hope, that grew bigger in her heart every day.  
They started hanging out more often. She realized she was smiling again - before and after meeting him. His presence was simply reassuring. He really cared about her, she could tell. And they had so much in common, it felt magical.  
She could confess all of her problems, her insecurities, and he would listen patiently, for hours and hours if needed, and always provide a sweet word, a comforting gesture, or useful advice.  
Elsa didn't know about this relationship, but it was easy for her to guess that her sister had a lover. It made her feel bitter and lonely. For this reason, she grew an instinctive distate for Hans before she even met him.

A few weeks later was set the coronation of the new queen of Arendelle. Guests from all over the continent were invited. The celebration would last two days - the organization of such an event was huge and complicated. Elsa knew that she shouldn't expect any help from her sister, but was still disappointed when she didn't.  
She was incredibly nervous about the upcoming event. Kingsley von Sugar Coast was their biggest partner in trade, along with being a direct neighbour. But he and her parents had disagreed on many issues in the past - she had found some of his letters, and shivered at the sheer violence of his words.  
And people wondered why she didn't like men!

Time flew faster than she could have anticipated, and she grew more and more nervous everyday. She never took off her golden bracelets, thinking that if she did, she would probably freeze the entire country.  
Anna on the contrary, was absolutely overjoyed. She had planned to present Hans to his sister, and he had hinted that he might propose to her that day. It felt appropriate - what better than a celebration to start a wedding?

When the day came, everything was neatly settled, from the dishes to the dances, the speech, the clothing and makeup. Elsa ordered her servants to open the castle doors, and Anna stormed outside to meet Hans. He was absolutely radiant in his white uniform - she had to refrain a violent urge to kiss him.  
The coronation in itself went without trouble. Anna and Hans spent a playful afternoon, and when night came, under the waterfall, he kneeled down and asked :

'Will you marry me?'

Meanwhile, Elsa was walking among her guests, smiling to everyone and feeling like a hypocrite. Only one more day of this torture and things would be over.  
She tried to find a corner where she could breathe for a moment, but was found by a little man with grey hair and puffy pants.

'Good day to you, your higness,' said Kingsley, with an amiable grin.

'Good evening,' Elsa replied hastily, searching for an escape route.

'It might be my imagination playing tricks, but for some reason I feel like you have been trying to avoid me.'

'Nothing of the sort, I am just very busy with all the guests here.'

'So you surely won't mind if we talk for a bit?'

'Not at all,' she lied, repressing a groan.

'Say, I couldn't help but notice that your parents didn't send many deviants to the _Dragon's lair_ in the past decade. I hope I don't have to remind you that the construction of this fortress was a decision that we took together, and that our two kingdoms are now equally responsible for.'

'I haven't forgotten,' she replied calmly, looking away. 'Our soldiers have been ordered to capture deviants if they represent a threat to the citizens and peace.'

So he didn't know that _she_ was a deviant. It was good to know. But why did he have to mention the Dragon's lair of all places? That filthy prison... she had to repress a shiver when he mentioned it. Of course her parents hadn't wanted to send anybody there after what their daughter had been through.

'I don't think they really did their best on the matter.'

Kingsley interrupted her train of thoughts.

'And what made you think that?' She asked curiously.

'Because if they did, the shape-shifter would have been caught a long time ago! The most dangerous of deviants of all times has been sighted within your frontier and you let him roam free?'

'He is not that easy to catch, for obvious reasons,' Elsa replied angrily. 'Besides, he has been free for about ten years and nothing happened so far. Perhaps your hatred for deviants is somehow misplaced.'

'My lord, have you lost your mind? These people are not humans, they're monsters! Have you ever _been_ to the Dragon's lair?'

Elsa repressed the urge to slap him.

'No, never. Excuse me, I see my sister over here. I think she has something to tell me.'

Elsa knew that it wasn't a proper way to end a conversation with a fellow king, but she couldn't bear to stay with him for one more second. Maybe his words wouldn't have hurt her so much if she didn't partly believe in them herself. Was she a monster? She only had to look at Anna's white hair strand to remember how dangerous her powers were.  
But Anna was beaming, as she gestured Elsa to come near her. Seeing her sister so happy made Elsa relax a little.  
That was until she noticed the man dressed in white standing next to her. That must be her lover. He seemed honest, but you never knew with men.

'Elsa, meet Hans of the southern isles,' Anna started happily. 'I wanted... we wanted... we were here to ask...'

'For your blessing,' Hans continued.

'For our marriage!' Anna finished.

Elsa blinked.

'So soon?' She asked.

'We have known each other for... what, a month now? And I think I'm ready to get engaged!'

Elsa sighed. However annoying that was, it was typical of her sister.

'Anna, you can't ask me to make this decision in such a hurry. _Especially_ not now.'

She put a palm on her forehead, failing to realize that tiny beads of frost were forming on her left bracelet.

'But Elsa, it's true love!' The younger girl complained.

'Anna, you don't know a thing about true love. Stop bothering me now. We'll discuss this later.'

But Anna wouldn't have it that way.

'You're being so selfish!' She shouted. 'Are you rejecting my demand because you're afraid no one will ever love you?'

That one hurt. Elsa's bracelets were now entirely covered in frost. She turned her back on her sister and starting walking away, a hand on her wrist.

'Enough,' she muttered through gritted teeth.

She felt that her power was slipping from her control.

'No, Elsa it's all right, if you want to talk about it we can-'

'I'm not WEAK!' Elsa roared, suddenly turning to face her sister, finger pointing in accusation.

The bracelets broke, and a rush of ice burst from her hands and formed a set of pikes that separated her from her sister and Hans.  
Everyone turned to look at them and gasped. Kingsley's eyes widened with fury.

'Treason! The queen is a deviant! Guards, take her!'

Anna covered her mouth with her hands.

'I'm sorry...' she muttered.

Elsa didn't know what to do. Her powers were now exposed, and guards were after her. Ice was spreading under her feet and climbing the walls. She thought about running away, but the door behind her led to a dead end.

They were taking her back to the Dragon's lair. Memories from her childhood started flooding back. No, she could never go back to such a place. She had a power, she might as well use it.

She held a hand. The guards who were running at her were pushed back against the opposite wall, arms and legs stuck in a block of ice.

'Yes, I am a deviant!' She shouted. 'If anyone has a problem with that, you are free to leave the castle this instant. But I am the queen of Arendelle, and I will keep my position! It is time for the world to change.'

She didn't feel as confident as she'd like people to think, but saying those words felt good. It felt _right_. As if she was opening her eyes for the first time in years.

Anna looked shocked. Hans stared at her with deep interest. Kingsley seemed disgusted. He walked a few steps to face her directly.

'Then it will be war.'

And with that said, he called his escort and left the room. Everyone watched him leave until the door slammed. Then, they turned their eyes back on Elsa.

'The party is over,' she announced weakly.


	3. Over the Gate

Anna was walking in Arendelle's streets, staring at the frozen fjords in shock. She knew her sister was powerful, but she hadn't expected something like this. It had been snowing since the party ended, and it didn't seem like it was going to end any time soon. Elsa was locked alone in her office and refused to see anyone.  
Anna knew that she should probably go and talk to her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She felt that the whole situation was her fault. Elsa had shouted "I'm not weak" at her face before her power had broken free. Is it how she had made her feel?

'There you are! Goodness gracious Anna, you shouldn't be walking alone in the snow like that. You're not even wearing a coat!'  
  
She turned around to see who had spoken. Hans put a cape on her shoulders and took her hand.

'Come on, don't stay here. You'll catch a cold.'

'Hans... do you think this is our fault?' Anna asked as she gestured towards the frozen landscape.

Hans stopped for a second and looked at her in the eyes.

'No, I don't.' He said after a moment of reflection. 'Elsa seemed distressed when we talked to her yesterday. Something else was bearing on her mind. Besides, how could anyone ever predict something like this?'

She nodded slightly, but didn't seem convinced. He took her hand again.

'Come with me. Your sister probably needs you right now.'

***

Night had fallen once more on the grey fortress. Ralph stealthily got out of bed and left the room. He had no idea how he was going to escape, but he knew he surely couldn't do it during the day.  
He walked through the dark hallway, careful not to make a sound. Fortunately it was pretty easy for someone who didn't wear any shoes.  
The entrance to the courtyard was guarded by one person. He didn't look well. Ralph decided to break the silence.

'Are you okay Markowski?' He asked softly.

He knew most of the names of the guards assigned to the _Dragon's lair_. He liked them more than the convicts because they didn't beat him up when they were bored and didn't make fun of him for his appearance.

'Yeah,' the guard replied. 'It's that damn cold, but I'll survive. Uh... what are you doing here, Ralph? Shouldn't you be asleep?'

'I need to pee, is that okay?'

'Sure, go ahead.'

'Thanks. Take care.'

His feet landed in the snow, and he smiled. He rather _liked_ the snow. It was like stepping into a cold pillow. A cold, fluffy blanket all over the floor. He was really lucky not to fear cold, all things considered.  
He looked up at the stars. He wondered if they were the same stars that his five year old self could see when he looked up in the sky, back from his parent's farm. They were very pretty. He didn't have many occasions to stargaze - he wondered if he shouldn't take a moment before looking for an escape route. But he didn't have that much time, so he dropped the idea.  
He walked towards the iron gate. It was twenty feet high, and the bars were pointy at the top. He supposed he could always try to climb it, but two guards were protecting it. He gave up before they noticed him and walked to the opposite wall.  
It was a bland grey wall. There was nothing to say about it other that it existed. It didn't bear any windows, it wasn't in a particularly bad state, it was just a plain boring wall.  
There wasn't really any other way out. Ralph thought that if he piled enough snow, maybe he could make a staircase and climb at the top. The fall would probably hurt, but injured or not, he'd be outside. 

Free.

He got to work instantly. Fortunately, there was more than enough snow to get at least a decent start. His big hands worked like shovels, and in fifteen minutes he had already crafted the first step, when he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

'Could you explain what you're doing, out at this hour?'

He let out a terrified squeak.

'Ahh, uh... nothing! I'm definitely not trying to escape the fortress or anything! So you can be at ease, haha... ain't that great?'

The guard gave him a tired look.

'Come on Ralph. Don't try to fool me because it won't work. I won't report this if you simply go back to your room for the night, all right?'

'No I swear it's not what you think, I was just bored and...'

'Ralph. Stop it. I said I wasn't gonna report you, so shut up and go to sleep.'

Ralph's shoulders sagged deeply.

'How can you send me back there when you know it's just gonna get me killed?' He asked meekly.

'It's the law, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the guard replied neutrally.

'If it's the law you might as well kill me right now,' Ralph complained. 'Starvation is painful right? The other convicts said it's the worst way to die. It's true, right?'

The guard sighed.

'Just go.'

Ralph suddenly frowned. He could feel anger rising, as it often happened with him. Suddenly he wanted to beat up this arrogant man in his fancy armor who told him that he should just die in a cold room surrounded with corpses because _the law said so_. He clenched his fists, ready to fight.

'Easy Ralph!' The guard said menacingly. 'You can't win this fight and you know it.'

'It's all right, Kohut. I think we can let him escape.'

The second guard had joined them. He was tall and bulky, with multiple scars on his face. Though he had been assigned to the _Dragon's lair_ several month ago, Ralph had never caught his name. But his words surprised him so much that he dropped his anger almost instantly.

'Are you mad?' The first guard asked. 'You'd let a prisoner escape, just like that?'

'Not _any_ prisoner, mind you. But I think Ralph has spent enough time in this shithole. I read his file.'

'Excuse me, what's your name?' Ralph asked, still in shock.

'I'm Zangief. Retired military, so that's _corporal_ Zangief to you.'

'And... I have a _file?'_

'Yep. The king has a bit of an obsession with deviants, see. He keeps information on paper - their age, what they can do, when they got captured, all that stuff. That's how I know that you were captured when you were a child, and before you even had time to cause any trouble of any sort.'

'Uh, yeah, that's right. It was such a while ago, I can't even remember actually. I feel like I've always been here, really.'

'It's time for a change, don't you think?' Zangief asked with a grin.

Ralph realized a few of his teeth were missing. He smiled in turn, revealing the gap between his front teeth. The other guard still looked a little baffled, but didn't say anything.

'Now it's not as if I was just gonna open the gate for you though,' Zangief added.

Ralph's smile vanished, making the guard laugh.

'Hey, you have to actually _deserve_ it, mate,' he said with a grin. 'If you think you can climb the fence without help, I won't do anything to stop you.'

Ralph took a few steps towards the iron gates. It was extremely high. And sharp.

'Oh right, those pointy things at the top could totally empale you, just saying. So. Will you try it?'

Ralph gulped. If he fell before he reached the top, he could get seriously injured AND fail to escape. But it was still incredible that corporal Zangief was actually giving him a chance.  
He didn't even consider that it could be a trap.  
He jumped onto the fence, and grabbed the bars with both hands. Or tried at any rate, but all he managed to do was hurt his fingers and fall on his back. Zangief laughed at him, but he ignored him and tried again. This time, he managed to get a steady grip.  
It was one of these activities that sounded so easy in theory but were so hard in practice. It took a lot of strength to lift his heavy body. By the tenth foot, he was already gasping for air and panting.

'I'm not impressed!' Zangief shouted from the ground.

Ralph didn't bother to reply, saving his breath for the rest of the climbing. He was starting to wonder how on earth he was going to pass above the spikes. They looked much taller and sharper from his position than they had from the ground.  
But it was that or death, he reminded himself. And outside - well, he couldn't even start a list of all the things he would do. The possibilities were endless. But his strongest desire was to live like a normal human. He didn't care about unlocking his powers. He wanted nothing more than being seen as an ordinary individual.  
And that desire gave him strength. Zangief down there was trying to fuel his motivation through anger, but anticipation was his driving force at the moment.  
He reached the top without even realizing. The wind was much stronger up here. He had to brush snow off his eyes with his palm. He looked down at the two guards, thinking he didn't remember them being so tiny.  
To go above the spikes, he needed to grab the wall. He through his leg and drew himself upwards awkwardly. He stood up on the wall, nearly falling back into the courtyard for a second.

The view was wonderful from there. It was a form of freedom in itself. He could see a river, a forest, and a small village, everything covered in a thick layer of snow.  
Going down was much easier. All he had to do was glide down the bars. His hand ached and burned near the end but he hoped it would wear off soon.

'I'm out!' He chanted happily. 'I can't believe it! I'm free! Oh thank you _so much_ guys!'

Zangief saluted him the military way before winking again.

'Go have fun out there big boy. Just a little advice from your savior: don't die. But mostly, don't ever get caught again, 'cause I'm not giving no second chance. Understood?'

'Yessir!' Ralph replied enthusiastically, before running away.

He had a whole new universe to explore.


	4. The Magic Jewel

Ralph was out, and he was running the thought in his head endlessly. He was out he was out he was out. Free, liberated, unchained.  
It was a thought too big for him. He needed to focus on the little things and go forward from there.  
What had the corporal said? "Don't get caught". Right, so he had to assume guards would be sent looking for him. He had to find a way to hide his identity - disguise himself as a human so people would stop running after him.

He ran in a random direction, making a mental list of all the objects he would be needing. Winter clothes would be nice. He needed to get rid of that awful uniform anyway. Food, because he was getting hungry, and beer because he'd always wanted to try it. And lastly, bandages to wrap around his hands so he could pretend he had been hurt when people would ask why they were so big.  
He couldn't think of anything else. Since he didn't know about money, he just stood in the middle of the road and asked the few passerbys if they could simply give him the stuff he asked for. And usually they did. Though he didn't particularly try to look scary, his large frame did the job for him. He obtained a winter cape from an elderly couple, an apple from a little girl dressed in red and a scarf from a middle-aged farmer. All of them thought they had been robbed, but Ralph made sure to be polite with them, and always thanked them afterwards. He was a bit sad to see their scared expressions, but he was sure that they would cease once he found the bandages to wrap around his hands.

He stayed on that road all morning. He was surprised to find so many people travelling that day, considering the weather (which was only getting worse). He didn't know that people were fleeing the region because of the upcoming war.  
Most people fled at his approach too. A few of them simply refused to give him what he asked for. A tall woman gave him a silver coin, but he was completly at loss as what to do with it.  
Sometimes, people would draw weapons and attack him. Swords, spears, axes and bows, he experienced about everything. It was mostly men, but sometimes women too. An apparently harmless-looking lady pointed a crossbow at his chest and told him to bite his tongue if he didn't want to end with a hole in his heart.  
Most of the time he would simply run away and hide in a tree, wondering why these people had such a bad temper. But he was quite one to talk.  
Around midday, he saw an expensive-looking cab loom over in the distance. He stood in its way and brought it to a halt, then walked to the side and opened the door to find a terrified-looking old lady and three children. He was about to ask the usual, that if they had some food or bandages to spare it would be very nice of them, but if they didn't it was all right and have a nice day, when his eyes locked onto something so incredible that he completly forgot what he was about to say. The old lady wore a resplendant necklace, with a huge diamond resting above her breasts. Ralph had only ever seen jewels twice in his life, and they had been tiny. The object was mesmerizing.  
Without even thinking, he held it between two fingers, and examined it closer. The old lady looked terrified, but he completly failed to notice it. The children were trying to get as far as possible from the stranger without actually leaving the cab.

'It's so beautiful,' Ralph muttered in amazement.

'You can have it!' The lady sqeaked. 'It's yours!'

She untied it from behind her head, but his gaze was still focused on the diamond.

'It's so big too... and there's even light inside! Is it magical?'

'Yes!' She replied hastily. 'It can grant your wishes! Isn't that great?'

Ralph blinked, and for the first time, his attention shifted. The old lady had invented that lie to get rid of him, but had involuntarily caught his deepest interest.

'You telling me I can actually become a real human with this thing?' He asked in amazement.

The lady looked puzzled. She hadn't expected him to believe her, and especially not such a strange question. She knew deviants were strange, but this was absolutely unprecedented.   
However, she nodded in agreement. And the deviant's smile was so sincere and so pure that she felt bad about lying to him.

'And you say I can keep it?' He asked, almost not believing it.

She nodded again.

'Wow, thanks. For the jewel, and your patience!'

He noticed that they were covering their noses with their hands.

'Ah, uh, sorry about the smell. Haven't had the opportunity to have a bath in... let's say a while,' he said embarrassingly. 'Uh, good bye!'

He left the cab, still admiring the jewel, then pocketed it and ran towards the river. He passed near a few houses, until he realized he had almost lost the diamond necklace. Judging that keeping it in his pocket was too hazardous, he took it in hand and resumed running.  
He quickly found a quiet place, away from the village. A few trees hid him from potential viewers that would be watching from the road.  
The river was covered by a thin layer of ice - nothing that he couldn't break easily. He quickly took off his cape, the rest of his uniform, dropped the necklace on top of the pile and jumped into the river. The ice broke easily under his weight. Even for him, the cold was a bit too much to handle. Besides, he didn't exactly like standing alone in the woods in his underwear.  
He walked forwards until his shoulders were fully immerged into the water, and began rubbing his skin of the dirt and filth. He took the opportunity to drink a bit, careless to freeze his teeth in the process.  
He couldn't help but feel that he was being watched, but each time he looked behind his shoulder, there was no one in sight.  
He frowned. In a fit of paranoia, he got out of the water, and kneeled beside his pile of clothes.  
The necklace was gone.

'No!' He shouted, to nobody in particular. 'Oh no my jewel, where... who...'

He quickly looked around to see if he simply hadn't dropped it somewhere else, but had to admit that he had been robbed. He hastily put his clothes back on, ready to search the area, when he heard a child giggle.  
He looked up.  
A small girl was sitting in a tree. She must be eight or nine - her hair was a deep shade of black, tied in a ponytail and covered with a mess of colourful ribbons. Though she was rather pale, her nose and ears were a bright shade of red, probably due to the cold. She was wearing an expensive green winter coat and dark trousers. If Ralph hadn't been locked in a fortress for twenty years, he would have probably found this last detail strange, but even in this scenario he would have cared more about the fact that the little girl was holding his necklace in her right hand and obviously daring him to claim it back.

'Uh... hello little girl,' he said awkwardly. 'Why did you take my jewel? I need it.'

'It's impolite to speak to a young maiden without asking her name first,' she replied with overacted petulance.

'What's a... maiden?' Ralph asked.

There was a moment of silence.

'I don't know,' the girl admitted. 'Still, you need to ask!'

'Fine, I guess. What's your name?'

'Vanellope von schweetz,' she replied, careful to articulate every word properly.

'Von schweetz? So you're one of the noble ones, huh.'

'No, not particularly.'

They looked at each other a moment, both feeling a little stupid.

'Why did you steal my-'

'What is your name?'

He grunted in frustration.

'Ralph.'

'Ralph what?'

'Ralph... just Ralph. Is there supposed to be something else? It's always been just Ralph. It's not a great name, granted, but it's not like I was supposed to just... pick another one, right?'

Vanellope seemed to wonder what kind of a moron she had stumbled onto, when suddenly she started smiling again.

'The hands! You're a deviant right? That's amazing, I've never actually met one.'

'Who, me? No, I'm not a deviant, I, uh... I've just hit my fingers with a hammer, yeah.'

'Right. You're going to make me believe that.'

'It's true!'

'I'm sure you're not supposed to lie to a maiden either.'

'I don't have time for this! Give the jewel back, now.'

'Catch me if you can!' She replied happily.

Ralph blinked, and she was already at the foot of the tree and running away. He trailed off after her, but she was headed for the small village. Ralph tried to accelarate, but she was already on the bridge that crossed the frozen river. If he crossed that bridge too, the villagers would see him, and when they'd realize he was a deviant, they'd call the authorities and he'd be captured again.  
He stopped running when he set foot on the bridge.

'Stop running!' He shouted. 'Please, I don't want to do this!'

She stopped running, probably out of curiosity. He put a hand on the ramp, breathing heavily.

'Please, I... I lied, all right? I am a deviant, you got me.'

'It wasn't all that hard, you know!'

'But I really need that jewel, please... a lady gave it to me, she said it could turn me into a human if I kept it long enough! You can have it afterwards if you want, but please... if I don't become human, the guards will catch me and they'll throw me in jail again, and I can't go back, I can't!'

Vanellope raised an eyebrow, then burst out laughing.

'What are you doing? What's so funny?'

'Ah this is the funniest day ever,' she said, trying to repress her laughter. 'Magic jewels don't exist, dummy! That woman made fun of you, and you believed her! You'll never be a human. You'll always be a big dumb deviant!'

And she laughed again as if she had never heard of a funnier situation. But when she realized how sad Ralph actually looked, she immediatly stopped. No, he didn't actually look sad, she corrected herself. He looked lost. Lost and desperate.  
Suddenly she felt awkward. People were supposed to be annoyed when you made fun of them, not suddenly become desperate puppies!

'Hey, it's all right,' she said. 'I'm a deviant too.'

He gave her a startled look.

'You? But I couldn't see it! What's your power like?'

'My father says I'm not allowed to show it to anyone,' she replied with a shrug.

'I won't tell anyone.'

It was enough to break her concerns.

'You asked for it!'

She crouched her legs, closed her eyes, and opened them again. When she did, she was standing on Ralph's shoulder. He was so surprised that he fell on his back and managed to catch her a second before she hit the floor.

'That's amazing! You can teleport!'

'Yeah! Except I'm not very good at controlling it, so I sometimes don't end up where I wanted to be. That's why my dad doesn't like it when I use my power.'

'How does he expect you to learn how to control it if you never use it?' Ralph asked as he got up.

'Uh... good point. I hadn't thought of that! Say, what's _your_ power anyway?'

'I don't know.'

'You don't know?'

He showed her his wrists and the golden bracelets attached to it.

'When I got into prison they gave me these,' he explained. 'They're scealed so I can't take them off. They're made to block my powers.'

She looked at them in amazement.

'So much gold... if only we could break them!'

'You already have a jewel,' he reminded her.

'You don't want it back?' She asked eagerly.

'If it can't make me human, I don't need it. Say, why did you steal it in the first place?'

'To buy myself a pony!'

'A pony? Seriously?'

'Yeah, and then I could participate at the annual pony races!'

'This world has _pony races?_ How long have I spent in prison? That's amazing! But wait, don't you need to, like, train the pony before it can race for you?'

'That's just a detail, I'm sure I'll be fine.'

'Uh... if you say so. Well, I guess I'll leave you here, then. I'm a bit of a runaway convict, so... can't really hang out with humans, yeah.'

'Is there anything I can do for you before you go?' Vanellope asked. 'In exchange for the diamond?'

Ralph put a hand on his stomach.

'Some food would be nice. Haven't eaten anything except and apple in two days.'

'Sure, I can do that! Wait for me here!'

'Uh... kid, I don't know if I can, what if someone sees me?'

'It won't take long, my house is just over here!' She said as she pointed to a big wooden cabin a few yards away.

He watched as she trailed off, still worried about being seen by another villager. He kept his hands behind his back, just in case. 

A minute passed in silence. There was no one in sight. Another minute.  
Ralph was starting to wonder what was going on. At the third minute, he sighed and crossed the bridge. He had to see what she was doing, and her house wasn't too far.  
Suddenly screams rang out. For a moment he thought he had been spotted, but they came from the kid's house. Two men dressed entirely in grey burst out of the house, holding Vanellope in their arms. She was tied up and struggling to get out.  
A woman came out of the house, screaming at the two men. Probably Vanellope's mother, Ralph figured. He didn't understand what was going on. He knew he should be running away, but he couldn't look away.  
Suddenly, one of the men drew a sword and stabbed the woman. She spat blood and died on the spot.  
Ralph had seen a lot of violence in his life, but never a murder. Anger rose up in his body like a flame.

'LEAVE HER ALONE!' He yelled at the assassins, finger pointed at Vanellope.

He charged towards them, careless of the consequences. The first man tried to stab him but Ralph grabbed the blade with his bare hands and threw it away, then punched him. The assassin fell on his back and didn't get up.  
Ralph was about to charge at the second one, but stopped himself, thinking he might hurt Vanellope.  
The second assassin drew a knife from his boot. Ralph was ready to defend himself - he figured he could use the bracelets as a shield.  
He didn't need to. Vanellope teleported out of the assassin's grip and into his arms. The man was so startled that Ralph managed to hit him in the face before he could recover, and stole his knife.  
A group of villagers arrived on the scene, probably alerted by the screams. Ralph realized he was a deviant carrying a tied-up child, next to a corpse and two stunned men. It would have been hard to look more suspicious than that.

'I can explain-' he began.

'He's got the princess! Quick, call the guards!'

'Oh, great.'

Ralph knew he had no choice but to run away. An explosion rattled his ears, and he realized the assassins had set fire to the house.

Anyone who would've been still in there was now dead.


	5. On the Run

It had been a week since summer had turned into winter. The citizens had reluctanly gotten used to the change, bought winter wear and started fire in their chimneys again. The farmers were the most worried. Agriculture couldn't work like this - unless the queen's magic could heal their frozen crops the whole kingdom would simply starve.  
Anna was on her way to her sister's office. She knew that she wouldn't get any answer from knocking, so she didn't bother and opened the door directly.

'Elsa! We need to talk.'

The queen was sitting on a fancy chair, head buried in her hands. She had changed - her usual hair bun had been replaced by an unruly braid. She didn't wear any makeup. The walls were covered in ice, along with the floor and every piece of furniture in the room.

'I know what you're going to tell me,' Elsa said tiredly. 'I have tried everything. Nothing works. When I try to repel the ice, it becomes thicker. When I try to clear the sky of clouds, I raise a storm. It's pointless. I give up.'

'That's not what I was here for,' Anna said, choosing her words carefully. 'I understand that you can't unfreeze our kingdom... yet. But I _might_ have an idea.'

Elsa rose her head at the mention of the last word.

'I'm all ears.'

'You... aren't going to like it,' Anna warned, wincing.

'Perhaps, but you can see I'm desperate.'

'Do you recall anything from your experience at the prison for deviants? When you were a child?'

Anna felt the temparature drop a few degrees. The wind blue from the window and shattered the glass. Elsa's face was unreadable.

'I don't want to remember it,' she said eventually.

'Well, it's just... I figured there might be a deviant somewhere whose power is the antithesis of yours. Someone with the powers of, uh... spring, flowers and sunshine? And if we liberate them they could maybe help us! So I wondered if you remembered anyone with a power like that!'

'That's... an interesting idea,' Elsa admitted. 'However deviants are prevented from using their powers when they're locked in this fortress. I didn't stay there long enough to learn what they could do. But we _could_ still ask our citizens to report anyone with the powers you describe... it's worth a try, at least.'

'Yes, or there is always my plan B...'

Elsa raised an eyebrow.

'Go on.'

'I heard Kingsley keeps tabs on all the deviants in his kingdom and some of ours, so if we just-'

'Anna, what are you even suggesting?'

'If there's one person who can find a deviant quickly, that's him!'

'Have you lost your mind? He declared war on us, wandering in his territory would be suicide!'

'Not if I disguise myself.'

Elsa blinked.

'Did you seriously consider... Anna this isn't a _game_!'

'I know! It's a desperate situation, and I want to help!'

'For heaven's sake, we have spies for that kind of job. I am not going to risk my sister's life on a suicide mission! Why do you want to do everything yourself?'

'Because... this whole situation is my fault. I pushed you, I've been insensitive and mean, and...'

'Anna. Listen to me. You are not going anywhere. I will run a test in our kingdom to see if anyone with the adequate power exists, and if I really don't see any other option, I will send a spy to read through Kingsley's files, though I doubt he'd find anything useful. But you will not leave this castle until this war is over, understood?'

'But Elsa...'

'Do you understand me?'

Anna sighed, nodded and left the office. Elsa got back to preparing her kingdom for the upcoming war. She assigned one of her servants to look after Anna just in case.

 

So Anna stayed in her room one more week, feeling bored and depressed. The situation wasn't getting any better. But at least she got to spend some time with Hans. He was everything a princess could dream - kind, affectionate, courteous, elegant... all in all, the perfect man.  
 _Maybe a little too perfect_ , a little voice at the back of her mind reminded her.  
She told him about her plan to go to the Kingdom of the Sugar Coast to search through the deviant's files. After complimenting her for her intelligence, Hans admitted that he agreed with Elsa - it was a good plan, but way too dangerous.  
Anna hadn't planned to listen to any of them. Someone had to do _something_ about that winter, after all.  
So on sunday night, she pretended she was going to sleep, but instead escaped through the window as soon as her servant left the room.  
She had left a little bag on the balcony with winter clothes, food, water and her money. She grabbed it, opened the balcony's window and entered the castle once more. She found herself in the ball room. It was rather scary in the moonlight. Huge shadows danced against the high walls. She ran towards the staircase, and found herself in the dining room. Empty, once more.  
She kept going until she reached the main hall. This one was heavily guarded.

Now it came to the hard bit - escaping without being noticed. She thought she could climb one of the windows, but she couldn't do it without being seen.  
She had an idea. She went backwards a few feet and entered the library. It was empty, and had easily accessible windows. They led directly to the lake, but luckily it was frozen.  
She opened the window, jumped out, tripped and fell on her butt. But she was out!  
Alone on a frozen lake, at night. She shivered. But at least the storm tended to calm down a bit when Elsa was sleeping, so she didn't have to worry about it.  
Walking on ice was much harder than she had thought. She kept tripping and falling. It was impossible to run. Hopefully the full moon shed a bit of light on her path, otherwise she would have been completly lost.  
At some point, she ran into a boat. She figured climbing onto it would give her better sight of the area. Maybe she could even hop from boat to boat and reach the land that way!  
She heard some screams. Looking behind her shoulders, she realized she was near the castle's back door. A guard had spotted her.

'Uh oh.'

He was calling other guards and running after her. Thankfully she wasn't the only one who had trouble walking on ice - she still had some time before he caught her.  
But she was doomed. In any moment the guards would wake Elsa up, and she would have no trouble catching her. It would be painful and humiliating.  
Unless...  
No, they wouldn't wake Elsa up just yet. She was concealed by the boat's shadow - from their point of view the guards could tell _someone_ was running away from the castle, but not that it was their princess.  
She jumped and tried to grab the boat's side, but it was too high. She walked a bit to her right, careful not to look behind her shoulder again. The guards were getting closer - from this distance, they would have no trouble recognizing her. She grabbed the decorative anchor and pulled herself upwards. From there she could jump onto the boat. She had dirtied her hands and dress, but she could easily use the snow to clean them later.

Now that she was on the boat, she didn't know what to do. Sure, she was temporarily out of reach, but the guards could still use the anchor to climb onto the boat like her. And her dream to hop from boat to boat had been a little optimistic - the gap between two ships was larger than her jumping abilities.  
She ran into the chambers and rummaged through the boat owner's stuff. She found a scarf that she tied around her mouth. That would do for hiding her identity.  
When she went to the board again, she found that a guard was nearly done climbing. She grabbed an empty crate and threw it at his face. He fell while cursing loudly.  
' _Okay, that should buy me some time,'_ Anna thought.  
She needed to get off the boat. Since she couldn't reach the other ships from her position, she had no reason to stay up there. But she realized that she was surrounded. Guards were posted all around the boat - none of them tried to climb onto it, but it would be very easy to catch her when she reached the grown.  
She was starting to feel nervous. She ran around the board and grabbed a wooden plank, thinking that it could maybe serve as a bridge between two boats.   
It turned out to be too small. Anna was running out of ideas, and the guard she had thrown a crate at was coming back to his senses. Worst even, more guards were coming out of the castle and running towards her ship.  
She needed to focus. Think of something. She couldn't face Elsa and admit that she had betrayed her promise.  
A new idea struck her. It was a stupid idea, but she was desperate. She couldn't outrun those guards, but she could out- _glide_ them.   
She threw her wooden plank on the lake, took a few steps back, and jumped onto it.  
Her first thought was " _ouch_." Her second thought was " _This is working this is working!"_ Her third one was _"I'm going to be sick._ "  
Indeed, her idea worked a bit too well. She reached the shore in only a few seconds, but ran face first into a big lump of snow.  
It took her some time to pull herself out, but this time she had done a great job of putting some distance between her and the guards. Even if they stole her idea, (and she doubted they did), it would take them a while to reach the shore. And by then, she would be far away.  
She entered the city of Arendelle. It was strange to walk along a familiar path at night, when the streets were almost empty.  
Only shady people walked at night, her parents had told her. That's why she should always be back in the castle before sunset.  
But tonight she _was_ the shady people. Dirty and covered in snow, walking in the shadows, trying to be stealthy, hiding her identity... it was incredible, the number of things you could do for the first time in your life in only one evening.  
Now the goal was to reach the second part of her objective. Before leaving the castle, she'd told herself only one type of people would agree to take her to the kingdom of the Sugar Coast in this weather. Incidentally, they often worked late at night, so she was sure she would at least find a few.  
The ice farmers. Her father used to talk about them a lot - he held them in high esteem. He said they were the pride of Arendelle. They were very mysterious and dreamy; and also probably out of money, thanks to Elsa and her eternal winter. Currently, the last thing people wanted in their lives was _more_ ice.  
But she needed them, and she was going to help them - surely, they must appreciate that?

It took her half an hour to find them. They had a little camp away from town. Anna had been right - even at this hour, most of them weren't asleep yet, probably out of habit. They mostly looked bored. But she was sure she could cheer them up. She took off the scarf that hid her face and stepped into the light.  
For a moment, nobody reacted, until they recognized her.

'Princess Anna! What are you doing here? At this hour?'

'Did the queen send you?'

'Can you do something about the weather?'

She raised her arms and told them to calm down.

'Gentlemen, I would love to answer all of your questions tonight but I'm in a bit of a hurry, so... please? I need you. Your help, that is, not your bodies... that would be weird.'

Everybody was staring at her awkwardly. She coughed.

'Ahum. Yes, that's right, I need you... what for already? Ah right, the winter, that was it.'

'You know a way to stop it?' One of the men asked.

'I might have a lead, let's say. And I need someone to take me to the kingdom of the Sugar Coast.'

'But it's too dangerous, with the war!' A woman said.

'I don't need you to take me all the way to the king's castle,' she said reassuringly. 'We'll stop at the village of Niceland. I can take over from here. It's just that my horse can't travel well in the snow...'

'Princess, the reports say that the snow goes way beyond Niceland. The entire Kingdom of the Sugar Rush has suffered the same fate as ours!'

Anna fell silent. She hadn't expected that. The stakes were higher than expected. Did Elsa even know that she was this powerful?

'Oh, uh... I won't ask you to go beyond the frontier if you don't want to. I'll find another way from Niceland, don't worry about me. Now, who would travel for me? I will pay twice the usual price, given the conditions.'

A young man stood up. He had dirty blond hair, a big nose and large shoulders. If Anna had been asked to draw someone that was "fed up with life", she would have chosen him as a model.

'Me and Sven can take you. I'm Kristoff, and I'd like to be paid in advance, thanks.'

Anna looked at him, then at the other ice farmers. Her eyes were asking _"no one else volunteers?"_

'Thank you Kristoff, that is very kind of you.'

'Not it's not, I'm doing this because I'm broke.'

Anna gave him a desperate look, but it seemed she would obtain no mercy from that man.  
She turned around. She thought she had heard her name. Was somebody calling her?  
Suddenly, a man riding a horse came in view.

'Wait, is that-'

'Anna! What have you _done?'_

'Hans! I... it's not what it looks like!'

He got off his horse and took a step towards her.

'Why did you disobey the orders of your sister?'

Kristoff frowned.

'What did she do?' He asked as Hans was approaching.

'She left the castle even though the queen _specifically_ forbade her to do so, then she attacked a guard on a frozen lake, and now... you were really going to go, weren't you? Anna, how can you be so inconsiderate? Anyway, the guards will be here soon. I'm taking you home.'

Anna dodged his hand.

'Kristoff, let's go! Now!'

'I'm not going anywhere if it's illegal,' he replied, taking a step back.

'Oh _please_...'

'Anna!' Hans said agressively. 'Quit this nonsense!'

'But Hans, you don't understand, the snow, it's much worse than we thought-'

'Whatever you have to say, you can tell the queen. Now for the last time, come with me!'

She suddenly felt like slapping him. After going so far, she simply couldn't retreat. Besides, she was tired of being treated like a child.

'No, Hans, _you_ listen to me! You see these people? Because of this winter, they have lost their job. If Elsa wants to be selfish, fine, but if there's something I can do to help my people, I will, even if it means putting my life in danger. So either you leave this place immediatly, or you come with me.'

'But... it would be suicide! I can't let you do something like this!'

She rolled her eyes.

'Have a little faith in me, will you? I managed to escape the castle without getting caught, after all. Besides, the kingdom of the Sugar Coast is covered in snow too, so they might actually want to _help_ us, if we reveal our intentions.'

'In a time of war?' Hans argued.

Anna shrugged.

'We'll avoid the dangerous regions. An army is not hard to miss.'

'You sound so confident,' he complained.

'Yes, but you love that about me, right?'

He sighed.

'All right, fine, I'll join you. But I still think this is a bad idea. Now let's leave quickly before the guards arrive.'

Anna hugged him, and jumped around excitedly. Kristoff still seemed hesitant.

'I'll take you both,' he eventually said, 'but it'll cost a bit more.'

'Sure, sure,' Anna said without bothering to count the losses. 'Let's just go!'

They all hopped onto the sleigh, and trailed off.

When the guards arrived five minutes later, and asked where Hans and the princess were, the ice-farmers replied that they had never seen them.


	6. Felix and the Nicelanders

Ralph ran, and kept running long after the pursuit was over. Vanellope was quietly sobbing against his chest. He wanted to cry, too, from sheer empathy, but had to focus on the task at hand: find a place to hide.  
They were deep into the forest at this point. It was getting darker as the trees grew taller. Ralph was getting tired - thankfully he noticed a natural cave at the base of a mountain. He checked to see that it was empty, then sat, and finally untied Vanellope.  
She was still crying. Ralph didn't know what to do.

'I'm very sorry for your mama,' he said after a while. 'I should have attacked faster, and maybe she wouldn't be dead...'

Vanellope rubbed her eyes. Her form seemed uncertain, as if she was in multiple places at the same time. Her power must be acting on its own when she was upset, Ralph figured.

'She's not my mom... she's my guardian,' she explained. 'My father had to do a big trip, so he asked Adrian and Johanna to take care of me while he was gone.'

Her voice was still shaking a little.

'They're not my parents, but... they were nice with me... and, and I've only been getting them in trouble, and now they're dead, and I can't say sorry...'

Her voice broke and she started crying again. Ralph pulled her in for a hug. It seemed like the right thing to do.

'I'm sorry,' he said once more. 'Those men in grey... you know who they were?'

She didn't answer. Ralph decided that it was a no. Still, a detail was bugging him. Something about what the villagers had said. Why couldn't he bring himself to remember?  
Then it hit him.

'Wait, the guys that were running after me... they called you a princess! But you said you weren't a noble, what does that mean?'

Vanellope was still crying, but she chuckled a bit.

'Ralph, you're so stupid... I didn't tell you I wasn't a noble because I don't know what the word means.'

Ralph didn't understand in what way that made him stupid but if she was going to lighten up, even a little, then he was fine with it.

'But are you... the princess princess, like, literal daughter of our king? Or one of the lesser princesses?'

'What would a lesser princess even be?'

'You tell me. I've just spent twenty years locked in a fortress.'

She seemed to have calmed down a bit, but this was still a lot to take in for a child.

'I am the princess princess, yeah,' she explained. 'Vanellope von Sugar Coast. My father said I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but... it doesn't matter now, does it? Oh, what am I going to do? I need to get back to the castle... but I don't know where it is!'

She got up and walked outside the cave. The trees were so tall that their leaves blocked what little sunlight wasn't already blocked by the clouds.

'Where even are we? What are we gonna do?'

She turned around to face Ralph.

'Why did you bring me here?'

'Because... because I panicked. I don't understand why these men wanted to capture you but there could've been more of them, I couldn't just... leave you alone out there!'

'But now I'm lost...'

The snowflakes were swirling around her face and the wind was quietly blowing in her hair. The traces of her tears were still visible on her cheeks. She no longer looked sad - she looked like someone whose world had been flipped upside down.

'Well, it's okay,' Ralph said softly. 'I'm lost too. People are running after me and I have nowhere to go... everyone sees me as some sort of monster... at any point I could get caught by the guards and be thrown in the fortress again. It's all pretty scary. But for now I'm here. And I can help you if you need to. Sure, I'm a big idiot, as you mentioned, but hey. At least I'm here.'

She looked at him directly in the eyes for the first time. Ralph had always found them a boring brown, but they were in fact an interesting shade. In the middle between hazel and orange, they seemed to glow with warmth in the darkness of the cave.

'Thanks,' she said quietly. 'For saving me back there. What do you think we should do now?'

'Right now, I think we should just rest for a bit. We're both upset but we'll feel better when we get up - and then we can think of something to do. Together.'

She nodded silently. It was a sensible idea, in a way. They both lied down next to each other, using Ralph's cape as a blanket.  
And slowly, one by one, they fell asleep.

***

They woke up in the middle of the night. Sure, it was hard to tell, since the forest was dark at all hours, and the cave even darker. Neither Vanellope nor Ralph had any idea for how long they had slept. Their backs hurt a lot.

'Uh so what do we do now, genius?' Vanellope asked while rubbing her eyes.

'Now we find something to eat,' Ralph suggested.

'You like to keep it simple, huh?'

'I'm a simple mind.'

'But where are we going to find food? And how are we going to pay for it?'

'You still have that jewel, right?'

She drew it from her pocket. It shone even in the semi-darkness.

'Goodbye, pony dreams,' she muttered.

'Can't you ask your father to buy you one?'

'He says it's too dangerous.'

'Sounds like he really cares about you.'

Vanellope didn't reply. Ralph frowned, wondering what that meant, then exited the cave.

'All right. We can't go back to that village where I found you, or they'll roast me alive, so we should try another direction. I'd say straight forward from here. Sounds nice.'

'Sounds good to me,' Vanellope answered while repressing a yawn. 'Say, would you mind carrying me? My legs are tired.'

Ralph rolled his eyes.

'You really _are_ a princess. Okay sure, I'll carry you. You don't weigh much.'

They started walking silently. It took them fifteen minutes to get out of the forest. They could barely see anything except for snow, snow and more snow.

'Gosh I miss the summer,' Vanellope complained.

'Yeah, where did it go, by the way? I was in prison, and suddenly there was snow everywhere, and then they stopped feeding us. You got an idea of what happened?'

'My father would probably blame deviants. But he blames them for everything.'

'Oh right, that would make sense! A deviant with the power of snow... it sure would be hard to catch 'em.'

'No deviant would be powerful enough to make a winter that'd last this long. It's probably a natural thing. Y'know, metero... eological.'

'If you say so.'

The conversation ended there. They kept walking, but Ralph was getting slower.

'I really should eat something before I pass out,' he said as his belly growled loudly.

'If I find something I'll tell you!'

'How much longer till we find a village...'

Half-an hour later, they crossed the river once more. Since there was no bridge in this area, Ralph simply placed Vanellope on his shoulders and walked in the water. The flow was stronger in this area, so the ice hadn't time to settle on the surface.  
Suddenly, the sun rose over the distant mountain. Ralph squinted in pain while Vanellope admired how the orange light illuminated the landscape in a unique way.

'There's a village over there!' She shouted.

'Thank god. I don't think I can take it any more. You mind if I rest for a bit while you go get us some food?'

'Sure!'

She teleported onto the floor, and started running, making sure that the jewel was still in her pocket. She read the sign as she entered the village.  
 _"Niceland"._ What a silly name. The houses were all very pretty, though. If Vanellope had to describe them, she would have compared them to a dollhouse. Everything was small, clean and colourful. The inhabitants were barely getting up than a market was being settled on the main plaza.  
Vanellope ran around the different exhibits, inspecting the products closely. She wondered what Ralph would like. Bread? Fruits? An amiable-looking plump woman was selling cakes that looked delicious, but her neighbor's stand caught Vanellope's attention.  
Pies. All kinds of pies, freshly baked it seemed. For some reason, Vanellope felt that Ralph would be a pie-person.  
She took the jewel out, and held it right in front the man's head.

'Hello sir how many pies could I get for a jewel like that please?' She asked without managing a pause to breathe.

He was a man in his mid-fourties, with short hair and a resplendant mustache. His eyes widened with greed as he contemplated the shiny object.

'For a jewel like that you could take my whole stand, little girl! Oh yes, give it to me please.'

But the diamond seemed to have attracted the attention of the other villagers. They were all getting closer from Vanellope. None of them must have ever seen a jewel that big.

'For a jewel like that you could take my whole stand too, you know!' Said a woman who was selling patties. 'Therefore Gene and I would get to share it...'

'How dare you try to steal my clientele!' The apparently-called Gene said furiously.

'I'm not stealing anything, all I am saying is that with such a jewel, that little girl can easily afford _more_ than your whole stand... it would be a waste, all things considered!'

Gene seemed like he was about to answer something, but Vanellope was faster.

'What's wrong with you, woman? Do I look like I asked for your crappy patties? Do I look like a patties person? I'm asking for pies, and nothing else, so stick your nose in the snow and see if you find me there, thank you!'

The woman looked scandalized, but Gene laughed. He wrapped the pies and stacked them all together so Vanellope could carry them at once. The stack was taller than her, but she was determined not to drop anything.  
So she walked out of the market, very slowly, careful not to shake her pile. Everybody stared at her until she disappeared into the fog.

When she reached Ralph, he was lying on the floor, eyes open but looking emotionless. He blinked when he saw Vanellope approaching.

'Holy cow! How did you get all that stuff?'

She shrugged very slowly as not to drop anything.

'Everyone was begging me to buy their things, it was a _nightmare!'_

'At least you got us a nice breakfast,' Ralph said as he grabbed the first pie and bit right through it.

'You aren't going to eat all of the pies, are you?' She asked suspiciously.

'Are you daring me?'

Vanellope thought about this one for a moment.

'No, I don't want to see you puke yet. I mean, we've known each other for two days! That's way too early for vomit witnessing.'

'And what a great bonding experience it must be,' Ralph replied, sounding a little disgusted.

He ate another pie, then a third one. Feeling like his hunger had calmed down a little, he took his time with the fourth.

'By the way, have you seen the sign on this tree?' He asked, mouth full. 'It's a guy I know from jail. I don't know why his portrait is on that tree, though. And I can't find out 'cause I can't read.'

Vanellope stood up and walked towards a tree. A caricature had been drawn on a torn piece of parchment. It showed a man dressed entirely in white with a white top-hat and glasses. His eyes and teeth were yellow. He had a wicked smile and seemed completly bald. His skin was grey and he looked pretty old (to Vanellope at least).  
Above the picture were painted the words _"Have you seen this man?"_

'It's the shape-shifter,' Vanellope explained. 'My father says he's a dangerous criminal. Deviant of course. But that's strange. He's supposed to be in Arendelle, not here! Does that mean we're in Arendelle?'

'Don't ask me. A minute ago I didn't even know Arendelle existed.'

'But wait, you know that guy? What is he like?'

Ralph, who was about to bite into his sixth pie, interrupted himself and carefully placed it on his lap.

'He was... he's... a strange man. When we were in jail, people never beat him up, see, and yet he wasn't that strong. People _feared_ him. _I_ feared him. Hell, if I met him today I'd run away I think.'

'But why?'

'It's hard to tell. He makes you _feel_ that horrible things will happen to you if you stand in his way. He makes you _feel_ like the slightest offense could mean huge retribution. And he never forgets anything. Not to mention, since he can change shape and stuff... he could always be anywhere.'

'You could be the shape-shifter?'

'Yeah, sure. I mean, I know I'm not him, 'cause you know... I'm me. But he could be you. He could be the bloke that selled you these pies. He could be those assassins from yesterday.'

Vanellope sighed.

'I could never be the shape-shifter you big dummy! I already showed you my power, remember? And no one was ever born with two powers.'

'Oh that's right! You know what, that actually makes me feel a little better.'

He finally bit into his sixth pie. Vanellope was still staring at the picture. The artist had done a really good job on this piece. It felt like the man could pop out of the parchment at any time. She shivered and went back sitting next to Ralph.

'Seems weird to call him the shape-shifter, though,' Ralph continued while wrapping Vanellope in his own cape. 'Back in the days, it was Alan Thurbow to anyone. Giving him a fancy nickname, like that, it makes him more powerful I think.'

'It's my father who had the idea,' Vanellope sighed. 'He has names for all the deviants. "Invisible girl", "Stinger", "The wrecker"...'

'Who's the wrecker?'

'Apparently he can destroy any material just using his fists.'

'He sounds terrifying! I hope I never get to meet him.'

Vanellope coughed. Her throat ached a little.

'Uh, is this guy coming for us?'

Ralph looked to the direction that she was pointing at. A young man dressed in white was walking towards them. The wind was blowing in his otherwise neatly combed blond hair. He was fairly short, and carried with him an aura of peaceful confidence.

'Good day people,' he greeted them politely, taking off his hat. 'My name is Felix. I was told that a little girl had exchanged a very expensive jewel for an entire tray of pies this morning. If you will forgive me, I am a curious man, and I was wondering what kind of people were ready to part from such a magnificent jewel simply for the love of pies?'

He held his hand, and Ralph shook it.

'We were really hungry,' he explained, feeling a little lame after such a bland explanation. 'Uh, good village you have there. Very neat.'

'Why, thank you! I am a carpenter, and I built many of those houses myself, actually.'

Vanellope coughed again. Ralph was starting to feel worried.

'Hey kid, you're not about to get sick, are you?'

'I don't know, I don't feel great.'

She was awfully pale, but Ralph had assumed it was just her skin tone. He pulled her in for a hug, trying to shake the snow off her hair.  
Felix looked at the both of them sadly, noticing Ralph's torn uniform and the fact that they barely had any belongings.

'If you need it, I could lend you my house for the night. It is not huge, but you would be warm, and I could prepare some tea...'

'You would be ready to do that?' Ralph asked, not believing his ears.

Felix sounded surprised.

'Why of course! It is my duty as a gentleman to provide hospitality for those in need! Come with me.'

Ralph stood up, carrying Vanellope in one hand and the remaining pies in the other. When they entered the village, he suddenly remembered that he wasn't supposed to go near humans. He had been so worried about Vanellope's condition that it had gone completly out of his head.  
Still, the Nicelanders didn't seem to care. Maybe the deviants were rare in this region.

Felix's house was a two-stories blue cabin with a "welcome" sign painted on the front door.  
He opened it and ushered Ralph and Vanellope to follow.

'Father? Mother? I'm here!'

He didn't receive any answers. He turned around to his guests, looking embarrassed.

'I have to take care of my parents,' he explained. 'They are very old and don't get out of bed much. They must be sleeping right now. Come on, this way.'

He led them into a tiny kitchen and made them sit on a bench. Ralph tried to comfort Vanellope, but she was getting worse. She coughed in her hand, and hid it in her pocket. She didn't want Ralph to know that there was blood on it.  
But Felix had seen it. He approached her, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. For a brief moment, nothing happened. She suddenly felt warmer. The pain in her head vanished. When she held her hand out of her pocket, the blood was gone.  
She blinked.

'Wow mister, I feel great! How did you do that?'

She took off Ralph's cape and got up, staring at Felix intently.  
He gave her a sad smile.

'Let us just say I have... a little talent. I can heal people. No big diseases, or mental illnesses, it's merely for small wounds and common sickness. The authorities thought I was mostly harmless, so they let me live here with my parents. But... I was never able to heal them.'

Vanellope placed a hand on his shoulder.

'It's okay mister! Maybe you don't have enough power today, but if you train you'll get better and better, and maybe you'll be able to heal them someday!'

Felix smiled faintly.

'Besides, I'd like to have your power... my father is a bit crazy sometimes, it'd be nice if I could make him calm down.'

'You mean his obsession with deviants?' Ralph asked.

'That. And other things.'

Ralph supposed that was a conversation for later. Felix got up and prepared some tea. He came back and sat in front of them, pouring the hot liquid in three cups.

'I will let you sleep here for the night. You can borrow some clothes if you need to... well, if you can find anything your size,' he added with a sideway glance at Ralph. 'But tomorrow, you will have to leave. Information has reached us recently - this winter has been caused by the new queen of Arendelle. Apparently she decided to freeze the land after being provoked by our king during her coronation ceremony. She established herself as the first deviant royalty.'

He made a pause to take a sip of tea, and made a little noise of complaint when he burned his tongue.

'I have to talk to her. I don't know if I will be allowed to have an audience, but I can't stay here while our village perishes. I hope you understand.'

Ralph nodded.

'It's very noble, we get it. We need to go to the castle of the Kingdom of the Sugar Coast, ourselves. For... personnal reasons. But we've gotten lost, you see...'

'Ah, what a shame... Fret not, I can lend you a map.'

Ralph sighed in relief.

'Ralph, can you even _read_ a map?' Vanellope asked.

He froze.

'It can't be too hard, right?'

Felix chuckled.

'I will show you, come here.'

***

Felix's house only had one spare room. Vanellope obtained a bed, but Ralph would have to sleep on the rug. None of the beds were big enough for him anyway.  
Felix had showed them how to read the map, and offered some of his clothes. Ralph had found a pair of Dungarees that fit him after he tore them a bit. Felix had been wincing when he heard the fabric being ripped, but there was no other way for the giant to put them on.  
They had eaten a few of the pies and then put Vanellope to sleep. Ralph made sure that she was warm and comfortable, then went downstairs and sat on his rug. Felix joined him a few moments later, holding a blanket.

'There you go. Will it be comfortable enough? I'm really sorry that we don't have any other beds...'

'No it's fine! I'm good, I swear.'

Felix nodded. He looked like he was about to say something but didn't know how to tackle the subject.

'Now that the children are sleeping, would you mind telling me what a runaway deviant is doing with a little girl, alone in the snow?' He asked cautiously.

Ralph froze. He tried to keep a bland expression, but fear was clearly visible on his face.

'I'm not a deviant, my hands have been infected by-'

'Ralph, Ralph! I'm not going to denounce you, just... be honest with me, please.'

Ralph sighed.

'I know it looks bad, okay? I ain't stupid, well, not completly. Okay, I ran away from prison, but they weren't feeding us anymore, and one way or another I was just gonna die!'

'Calm down, I understand. How did you meet Vanellope?'

'She stole my jewel. Then I tried to get it back, and... some people tried to capture her.'

'Who?'

'I don't know. People dressed in grey. I kicked them hard an ran away with her. They had killed her guardians and set fire to her house.'

'And the reason you need to go to the castle is...'

'Because her dad is the king, yeah.'

'You know that he will probably accuse you of capturing her, right?'

'That's not what worries me the most,' Ralph replied, to Felix's surprise.

'Then what is it?'

'I can't tell you yet. I need to talk to her more.'

'Well, if you...'

Felix was interrupted by the creaking of wood. Someone was walking down the stairs, very slowly. The little man got up anxiously, and Ralph followed him.  
A very old man was standing on the staircase - Felix's father probably. He had completly white hair and looked eighty, at the very least. His face was a constellation of rinkles, and his legs were shaking.

'Junior, my boy,' he said in a trembling voice.

'Yes father?'

'Who are these people you brought here? I heard voices.'

'No one father. Go back to sleep.'

Felix's father was looking directly in Ralph's direction, but he didn't seem to notice him.

'He is blind,' Ralph muttered, suddenly understanding.

'I heard his voice,' Felix's father continued, unperturbed by the interruption. 'Is _he_ coming back?'

Felix's face suddenly grew stern.

'No father. He is never coming back, I already told you. Go back to sleep now.'

He accompanied his father as he slowly walked up, and came back a few minutes later.

'I am sorry that you had to witness that. I'm afraid my father's mind isn't what it used to be.'

'Poor man, he looked... hurt. Who is going to take care of him while you're gone?'

'Oh, one of my friends offered to look after him. Now you should sleep while you can. It's a long journey to the castle, you need all the rest you can get.'

***

When Ralph woke up, Felix was still in the kitchen, packing all his items. The house was quiet. The wind was quietly blowing outside - in fact it never really stopped.  
It was so strange to sleep in a warm house like this, after all those years in jail. It was so strange to actually feel safe. Ralph suddenly realized he hadn't even thanked Felix for his hospitality.  
He got up slowly, tying the blanket around his neck like a cape. Felix was opening the door, ready to leave.

'Oh, hello Ralph. Did you sleep well? I was about to leave.'

'It was wonderful, thanks. Uh, will you be all right on your trip?'

'Of course! Don't worry about me.'

Felix winked, closed the door and left. Ralph realized he had failed to thank him though that had been the whole point of getting up early. Now he was alone in a stranger's house. He scratched his head. For some reason he felt bad about letting Felix go. As if such a man was worth knowing better.

Besides, there was something else. Something that Felix's father had said... what was it?   
Oh right. He had called him junior.  
Which meant Felix's father was also named Felix.  
Vanellope arrived in the kitchen and bit into a pie morosely. It was easy to guess she wasn't a morning person. She found Ralph staring at the window, then turning back and collecting their belongings excitedly.

'Yo stinkbrain. Care to tell me what's going on?'

'Not yet. Not yet, 'cause I'm not sure, but Felix is gone and I have to ask him a question!'

He grabbed her with one hand and stormed outside. She screamed in surprise. The cold winter breeze was like a painful slap that woke her up fully. But Ralph seemed to ignore her discomfort and ran after Felix. It was easy to follow his footsteps in the snow.

Until they suddenly stopped, because there was no longer any snow. There was a forest fire, and Felix was nowhere in sight.


	7. Rings and Thugs

When Kingsley went back from his trip to Arendelle, he was absolutely furious. Their biggest partner in trade turned out to be a deviant and she had _dared_ to freeze his kingdom. He absolutely hated the cold, and deviants, and himself for declaring the war to such a powerful woman. But his troubles were not over yet.

'Your highness, a message has arrived' a nervous servant informed him when he sat on his throne. 'Your daughter has been captured.'

Kingsley nearly screamed. He had tried to hide Vanellope in a remote place, where no one would ever find her, and the stupid girl had managed to get caught anyway. There must have been spies in his ranks.

'It is my brother again, isn't it? He wants the throne in exchange for my daughter's life, I'll bet.'

'Uh, no your highness,' said the servant, feeling more and more nervous. 'It was a deviant, uh-'

Kingsley jumped from his throne, and seized the servant by the collar. His face seemed to be distorted, and his skin turned an unnatural shade of red.

'What deviant?' He asked, trying to control his temper.

'The wrecker your majesty! He has managed to escape from the Dragon's lair!'

Kingsley seemed to regain his composure. His face took its original form; he dropped the servant and sat back, pensively.

'It's not that bad, all things considered. The wrecker is the dumb one. My daughter might just manage to escape on her own... but let's not take risks. Bring me the slicer!'

'Y-yes, your majesty!'

Five minutes later, a tall blond woman in a light armor was brought into the throne room. She had short hair, a pointy noise and a perpetual look of conceit.

'Your majesty,' she said as she saluted.

'Tamora,' the king replied icily. 'I have a mission for you. My daughter has gone missing, and I need you to bring her back to me.'

'Understood.'

'The intendant will give you the file of the deviant who captured her. If you can capture him and bring him back to me, do so, but you are allowed to kill him if it makes things easier. The safety of the princess comes first.'

'Yes, your majesty.'

She bowed, then turned around and headed for the door.

'Oh, and Tamora,' Kingsley said as her hand was on the handle. 'Don't disappoint me.'

She turned around and looked at him directly in the eyes.

'Have I ever?'

She then left and slammed the door.

***

The sleigh was running smoothly on the white plains. Since it had never been made for more than two people, Anna and Hans got to sit together at the back while Kristoff sat on the reindeer's back. It was uncomfortable, but at least it wasn't awkward.

'So, how do you expect to break into the castle unnoticed anyway?' Hans asked after a moment, breaking the silence.

'Oh, I haven't had time to work out the full details yet, but I thought we could use the back door maybe? I think you should let your beard grow for the occasion, and I can put on a hood, so they won't know who we are! And then we'll slip through the guards, you know, throw rocks to divert their attention, and...'

Anna stopped talking because her boyfriend was laughing so loudly that she couldn't hear herself anymore.

'What's so funny? You don't like my _master_ plan?'

'Oh, Anna. What would you do without me? Because if you rushed in their castle with a hood and throwing rocks in random directions, I don't think you would go beyond the main hall.'

'Well...' Her cheeks flushed. 'You have a better idea I suppose?'

'I have a few, yes. We could disguise ourselves as farmers, or merchants, and pretend we need an audience with the king. That would probably take us further than the main hall, for one thing.'

'Oh, right. That could work.'

'We could make a diversion and draw the guards outside... well, it would have been easier with a bit more preparation. Currently, we don't have the right tools at hand... thanks to a certain someone who likes to rush things,' he added with a smug grin.

'Hey, stop teasing me!'

'But it's so funny...'

Kristoff sighed. Being forced to transport these royals to their stupid stealth mission was already annoying enough without having to hear them flirting during the whole ride. 

'You hear that Sven? I swear, if I didn't need the money that bad, I'd dump them in the snow and go home right away.'

The wind was too strong for them to hear him, but Sven could. He made what could have been heard by anyone as reindeer noises, but that sounded like actual words to Kristoff's ears.

_'Ah Kristoff, he always has to be grumpy when others are happy, that one! Thought your new year resolution was to calm your bitterness?'_

'I'm not bitter, it's just... their voices are annoying.'

_'You expect anybody to believe that?'_

'I just wish we were alone. Humans are annoying.'

 _'How long until this trip is over anyway?'_ Sven asked. _'My legs are getting tired.'_

'It's barely been half-an hour, stop complaining.'

_'It's easy to say, you're the one being carried!'_

'Oh, shush.'

They came to a halt an hour later.

'Why did we stop?' Anna asked, suddenly noticing the lack of motion.

'There's a trading post a few yards away from the road. I need winter supplies and carrots for Sven,' he said as he patted the reindeer affectionately. 'You need anything, yourselves?'

'Uh, I think we have everything,' Anna said. 'You need anything Hans?'

'Do we have a rope?' Hans asked.

Kristoff nodded.

'In that case, I'm fine.'

Kristoff waved them as he went away. Anna sat back on the sleigh, adjusting her cape. Hans put his hands in his pockets and looked around.   
Whatever how much people would complain about the snow, they would have to admit that the landscape had never been more beautiful. The white domes, the way light glittered on the surface of the snow, the contrast created by the dark shapes of the trees, it was a feast for the eyes if you knew where to look. Besides, Hans liked the color white. It was pure and flawless.  
He noticed a tiny hill bathing in the cold light.

'Anna, while we are waiting for our driver, why don't we climb over here?' He suggested while pointing to the right direction. 'The view must be gorgeous from there.'

'Sure!'

He took her by the hand and started walking, staring at the horizon.

'You know, I've spent my whole life in the shadow of my brothers. My parents have always had a preference for their first born. As heir to the throne, his duties by far exceed ours, who are beneath him.'

Anna nodded as he was talking, but Hans kept talking and didn't notice her.

'As you could predict, there was a lot of conflict among my brothers. Who would get father and mother's attention, who would be praised or punished, that sort of thing. And for a while, I have played along. But as the last born, I have always been at disadvantage.'

Anna was thoroughly captivated. They were almost on top of the hill.

'For a long time, I felt like a burden. I had no purpose, no world-changing objective, and even if I had one, nobody would have noticed. I felt like a half-being, powerless to reach my brother's level.'

They were on top of the hill now. Hans took off his gloves and put them in his pocket. At which point he finally looked at Anna in the eyes.

'And then... I met you. And I understood this little game of power would lead me nowhere, but most importantly, that it didn't _matter_. I fell in love. And I realized that I didn't care about what my parents thought of me. As soon as I am with you, I will always be happy.'

He drew a little black box from his back pocket and kneeled down. Inside was a gold ring with a bright jewel in its center. Anna covered her mouth with her hands, then quickly took off her own gloves, and took the ring.

'I wanted to wait for the queen's blessing to properly ask you for marriage but... it looks like we won't be getting it any time soon, am I right? So here we are again. Anna... will you marry me?'

Anna was busy putting the ring on her finger. It was strangely cold, and a little too large for her.

'Yes, yes, and yes! Oh Hans, that speech was wonderful, I'm sorry, I didn't prepare anything myself, but...'

Hans smiled.

'That's the whole point, isn't it? We don't even need a grand speech. Our love is a simple yet powerful thing. It doesn't matter what other people think, as long as we are happy.'

Anna wondered if she wasn't going to cry a little. She jumped on Hans and hugged him tightly. He fell on his back while laughing. She then helped him up, and they both put their gloves back on.

'Say, did you hear that?'

'Hear what?'

***

Kristoff knocked at the door of the trading post. There was no answer. He knocked again. Muffled screams came from behind the door. Raising an eyebrow, he kicked it open, only to find that a woman was lying on the floor, tied up. She seemed injured. He drew a knife from his pocket and cut the ropes.

'Are you okay? What happened to you?'

He heard the door slam behind him.

'What the-'

He tried to get up, but the woman punched him, stole his knife and held it against his throat.

'If I were you, I wouldn't move too much. Now, what do you have in your pockets... ah ha!'

'No, don't steal my money, I had to sell my soul to get it!'

'Stop being dramatic.'

She weighed the purse.

'Not bad,' she said in an appreciative tone. 'There's quite a sum in there. I guess you're not carrying some nobody in that sleigh of yours. The boys will be happy to hear about that.'

'The boys?'

'Yeah, they must be raiding your sleigh at the moment.'

'Oh no, my stuff!' He complained. 'It was so expensive!'

'Perfect. That means more money once we sell it.'

Kristoff grunted in frustration, but there was nothing he could do with a knife threatening his life. He scanned the shelves in search for something that could be useful. They were mostly empty. Empty and dusty. It was clear that the trading post hadn't been in use for a while.  
For the moment, Kristoff mostly hoped the thugs wouldn't hurt his passengers too much. But if his memory was correct, Hans had a sword on him. And since he was a prince, he probably knew how to use it.  
There was a knock on the door. The woman put a hand on Kristoff's mouth to stop him from talking. There was another knock, then a pause, and then the person hit the door with so much strength that they actually fell.  
It was Anna.  
The thief was very quick to react. She kicked Kristoff at the back of his head using her knee, threw him behind the counter, and pointed the knife at the princess.  
Anna was holding a sturdy wooden stick - she smacked the woman with all her strength. The hit was so powerful than the woman fell.

'Quick, grab the knife!' Kristoff shouted from behind the counter.

Anna dropped to her knees, but the woman snatched it away from her, then punched her in the face. Anna fell once again, hitting her head hard against the wood.   
The thief was about to stab her when Kristoff dived above the counter and landed heavily on her back. She grunted in pain and frustration, trying to shake free.  
Anna got up, grabbed an empty bottle on the shelves, then broke it on the woman's head, instantly putting her to sleep.

'Phew. That was rough! She sure didn't want to give up, huh?'

'Are you hurt?' Kristoff asked while getting up.

'A little, but I'll be fine. Here, your purse!'

'Thanks. How did you know where to find me?' He asked as he walked towards the exit.

'Sven showed me the way!'

'What a good boy...'

He ran back towards his sleigh while Anna picked another bottle from the shelves. When he reached the sleigh, Hans was surrounded by thugs, sword raised but clearly overpowered.  
'I'll need a weapon,' he thought.

' _Over here, dummy!'_ Sven replied.

Kristoff noticed he was holding the pickaxe in his jaw. He retrieved it and started fighting.  
Well, "fighting". "Avoiding death" would be a more appropriate term. He had never been a fighter, especially not a weapon fighter. Hans did most of the job, disarming the thugs who then ran away. Anna threw a few vicious snowballs at their heads or in other uncomfortable places, which distracted them enough for Kristoff to stun the last one.  
He sighed in relief.

'That was close. Thanks to the both of you. And you too Sven.'

 _'You didn't get the carrots!'_ The animal complained, but Kristoff ignored him.

'Thanks to you. You were of great help during that fight,' Hans said, but Kristoff guessed that he was only being polite.

'It was so much fun!' Anna shouted happily. 'If you had seen me, smacking that woman with my branch!'

She tried to re-enact the gesture to show Hans, but tripped and nearly fell. Kristoff managed to grab her wrist at the last second.

'Oops,' she said.

'Be careful,' he replied while pulling her upwards.

He then climbed on Sven's back once more while the royals sat at the back.

'Ready to leave? If we're fast enough, we can reach Niceland before sunrise.'

***

It took a moment to break the ice that was blocking the queen's office door. When the servants finally managed to open it, she turned to them in surprise. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn't heard the clock ticking.

'Your majesty, forgive our impertinance, but we have an urgent message for you.'

She had changed again. Instead of her usual dark clothes, she wore a light-blue and sparkly dress that seemed to be made of ice.

'What is it?' Elsa answered anxiously. 'What happened?'

'Your sister has escaped during the night. She and prince Hans are missing. The guards are looking for her but haven't found anything yet.'

Elsa felt like she had been struck with an arrow. Of course, she should have predicted something like this would happen. Anna was always so inconsiderate...  
Ice was forming on the already frozen floor and walls, the wind blew louder outside.  
But what could she do? Run after her? Kingsley was preparing an army. She had to stay in Arendelle and defend her kingdom. Even if her sister was in danger. And freezing the room wasn't going to help anyone.

'Thank you for these informations,' she said eventually. 'The only way to help my sister now is to beat the kingdom of the Sugar Rush at their own game. Bring the royal adviser here. It is time to strengthen our defenses.'


	8. Inferno

Ronald Bowser was a bit of a sad fella. His story was pretty ordinary for a deviant. He had been born with fire powers that he didn't control really well. Despite his parents and friends' advice to not use them too much, he could not resist the temptation to show off, and an accident occured when he turned fifteen. He set fire to a barn.   
No one was injured, but it was enough for the authorities to send him to the _Dragon's lair_ where he spent most of his years.  
He wasn't exactly a bad person, but prison didn't do him any good. With time, he grew vicious and cruel, and quickly became one of the prison's biggest bullies.   
He was a tall, broad man with a square jaw and huge lips. When he turned twenty, his nails began turning into claws. Nobody really knew why. But it was common for Deviants to have malformations - it was usually linked to their powers.  
He was in his thirties when Elsa's infinite winter landed on the Kingdom of the Sugar Coast. As a fire element, he was particularly weak to the sudden cold. He was one of the first to get sick, and it only got worse with the passing weeks.  
At which point Kingsley was struck with a wonderful idea. He would use the deviants he had captured in the upcoming war against Arendelle. This would be a smart way to counter the queen's impressive powers.  
So he sent his men to fetch the remaining deviants and bring them back to the castle.  
When they arrived, Ronald was in a state of near-coma. His skin was cold, and his pulse was weak. Thinking he was a goner, they didn't bother bringing him.

He woke up the next day, finding the fortress empty except for a few corpses, and the gates wide open.

***

'Felix! Felix, where are you?'

Fire was surrounding Ralph and Vanellope, consuming the trees and melting the snow. It seemed to have a mind of its own, taking obscure shapes and attacking everything.

'Ralph, we have to get out of here!' Vanellope shouted, coughing because of the smoke.

'But he could be lost in there!'

Ralph started running, and soon Vanellope lost sight of him. She knew she could always escape using her power, but she didn't know where to direct it. From her point of view, there was fire stacked on more fire, and smoke blocking out the sky. And she had never tried a long-distance teleportation - she didn't even know if it was _possible_.  
But she had to try, because if she stayed here she might turn into a pile of ash.

***

The sleigh was quietly moving forward, accompanied by the usual chatting of Anna and Hans at the back. They were almost at Niceland, and the sun was barely rising above the mountains.   
They suddenly entered a forest, and Kristoff ordered Sven to stop running.

'What's the matter?' Sven asked.

'I think I heard something, wait here.'

He took a few careful steps forward, hiding among the shadows. After covering twenty yards or so, he found the origin of the noise. A bulky man was talking with a lumberjack in a clearing.

'I mean, sure,' said the lumberjack, scratching his beard thoughtfully. 'I can chop yer hand if that's what ya really need, but I don't really see in what way it's infected... sure you don't want it checked by a doctor first?'

'No no, go right ahead! I'm asking you, ain't I?'

Kristoff was puzzled. It was probably the strangest situation he had ever witnessed. Why did that man want his hand chopped off? He had laid his left wrist on a tree stump, and the other one was raising his axe in the air. It didn't make sense, but somehow he couldn't look away.

The lumberjack hesitated.

'You _sure_ you want this?'

'Yeah!'

'But ye're clenching ya teeth, mate.'

'Well duh, I know it's gonna hurt like hell, but do it anyway! The faster the better!'

It was only at this point that Kristoff noticed the claws on Ronald's hands, along with the scealed golden bracelet.  
A deviant then. Probably a runaway. And if he wanted his hand cut, it was because-

'Having fun out there?'

Kristoff nearly jumped. Anna had stealthily followed him and was now glaring at his shocked expression with a wide smile.

'Shhh!' He said.

'What's going on here, can I see?'

'No!'

Kristoff tried to stop her, but Anna had already stepped into the clearing. The axe dropped, and blood spattered on the white snow. Ronald yelled and the lumberjack ran away, dropping his axe. Kristoff grabbed Anna by the wrist and pulled her back.  
Then fire burst from the wound. It was more than fire. It was an explosion. Anna and Kristoff were blasted away, along with trees, rocks and dirt.  
She was the first to get back up. Kristoff was lying a few feet away, a nasty bruise on his left cheek and unmoving.

'Kristoff, are you all right?'

He grunted in response, but seemed unable to move or even open his eyes. Anna tried to find a stick. Smoke was rising all around her. The strange individual was standing at the core of the inferno. She needed to knock him out somehow, or the flames would reach Kristoff before he came back to his senses.  
She didn't know where Hans was. In fact she could barely see anything, with all the smoke around her. She felt dizzy. Her eyes were watering uncomfortably.  
She dropped to her knees, desperatly shoveling through the melting snow in search of a stone that she could throw.  
Then something grabbed her, and she was pulled out of the smoke. She coughed and blinked, wondering what was going on.

'Missy, you can't stay here!' A male voice rang in her ears. 'It's dangerous!'

The man put her back on her feet and she had an occasion to finally see what he looked like.  
She gasped. She was faced with a literal giant with huge hands, large arms, broad shoulders and a curious expression.

'But my driver is still out there!' She replied, pointing to the smoke. 'He's unconscious and he can't get up!'

'Don't move then, I'll fetch him for you.'

Ralph took a deep breath, then threw himself in the cloud of smoke. Anna quickly followed him. She had to squint and cover her mouth with her glove. The heat was insufferable. Her winter attire weighed heavily on her body, and she wanted nothing more than being able to remove it. Her ears were ringing.  
Ralph quickly found Kristoff's body, and attempted to drag it backwards, when Anna pointed a finger at Ronald.  
It was getting worse. The flames were chewing up the ground so fast that the human eye could hardly keep up. She tried to lift a stone but it was too big. Ralph shoved her aside and threw it directly in Ronald's gut.  
They heard a distand grunt, and the flames mostly died for a little while. Until they burst out once more, making even more noise and light than before.

'Lady, take your friend out of here, I'll deal with this guy.'

'How?' Anna asked. 'How on earth will you stop him?'

Ralph had realized that the fire was getting weaker around his wrists because of the golden bracelets. However, he didn't have time to explain all that, so he simply yelled 'Trust me!' and ran.

Kristoff was finally shaking off bewilderment.

'What's going on? What's that?'

Anna didn't bother to reply. She was fascinated by Ralph. The man was approaching his target, hands raised and _forcing_ the brazier to withdraw.  
On closer inspection, Ronald's body wasn't entirely soaked in flames. With his left hand gone, he had lost one of his bracelets. The sheer pain of the amputation had probably triggered the sudden impulse of power. But his right wrist was still protected, and therefore the right half of his body didn't produce any fire.  
Ralph knew Ronald of course. He knew everyone at the Dragon's lair - especially the ones that had been there for a long time. But that didn't mean he was particularly happy about it. Ronald was a jerk, both violent and stupid. How he had managed to escape was still a mystery, but Ralph had never particularly wanted to know what he was capable of, especially when suffering from immense pain.

'Ron, calm down it's me, Ralph! I know it hurts, but you're kinda burning the forest right now. Wake up!'

The flames were getting less agitated the more Ralph spoke. Ronald blinked. The remains of his arm were trembling violently, but the rest of his body hadn't been damaged by the flames (probably a side-effect of his power). He was sweating and cursing under his breath, clenching his right fist so tight that his claw pierced through his palm. Ralph set a reassuring hand on his shoulder. His golden bracelet came in contact with the man's shoulder, and the rest of the flames died instantly.

'It's okay Ron. It's gonna be okay.'

Ron seemed to finally awaken from his trauma.

'Ralph? _Bastard_ , how did you escape? And who are _them?'_ He shouted menacingly, pointing a finger at Anna and Kristoff.

Ralph looked behind him and noticed they had come closer.

'No, stand back please-' he started.

'They're here to throw me back in jail, ain't they? And you Ralph, you help them?'

'No, I don't even _know_ them!' Ralph protested.

But Ronald wouldn't hear anything.

'Bloody traitor. Rat! _Get off me!'_

He punched Ralph in the jaw, unleashing the flames once more. He then grabbed the axe that the lumberjack had dropped, and shoved it in Ralph's face with all his strength.

***

When Vanellope opened her eyes, she thought her attempt at long-distance teleportation hadn't worked. Essentially, she was still in a forest, and there was still fire everywhere. Maybe the trees weren't exactly the same, but how would she know? She wasn't a tree expert.  
But she wasn't surrounded anymore. The fire actually seemed distant, and the heat was somewhat bearable.  
Besides, she wasn't alone. A ginger man dressed in white was kneeling over something, a few yards away from her.  
She ran towards him. He must be rich - his cape and his coat looked expensive, and a shiny sword rested in the snow next to him.  
Then she understood why he was kneeling. He was inspecting another body - the one of a little man that Vanellope immediatly recognized.

'Felix! There you were!' She turned to the rich man in white. 'You know what happened to him?'

Hans set his gaze on her, and she had the nasty feeling that he already knew who she was. But it didn't last long.

'Good day little girl,' he started politely. 'I am Hans of the Southern Isles. What is your name? I found this man laying unconscious only a few minutes ago. Do you know him?'

'Sort of. He helped us out, me and Ralph yesterday. You haven't seen Ralph, have you? He's this very big guy with dungarees.'

'I can't say that I did. All I can say is that your friend here (he pointed to Felix) has taken quite a rough beating. I suspected thieves, but his purse is still there. Oh wait, he's waking up. Perhaps he can tell us more about what happened to him.'

'Or about the fire everywhere' Vanellope completed.

Felix massaged his head for a few seconds, then started talking. He must have been semi-conscious for he didn't look confused, neither asked Hans his name.

'There is a deviant in this forest,' he explained. 'He was asking a local logger to remove one of his hands when I arrived on the scene. I didn't mean to overhear their conversation, but the deviant punched me without a warning and here I am. Uh, why is everything on fire?'

'That is probably the deviant's doing,' Hans theorized.

'Oh, right. And what are you doing here Vanellope? I thought you and Ralph were headed for the kingdom of the Sugar Coast.'

'We were, but Ralph has something he wanted to tell you. It's very important apparently. But I don't know where he is,' she completed, sounding rather disappointed.

'Judging by the screams I'm hearing, I would guess the core of the brazier,' Hans said softly.

'Oh no,' Felix said. 'We have to help him!'

At which point the flames died down in an instant. Felix got to his feet. Hans raised an eyebrow.

'That's suspicious.'

Felix ignored him and started running. When he arrived on the scene, Ronald was slapping Ralph with the axe. He carved a nasty cut in the giant's cheek, who collapsed silently. He was about to hit him again when Anna threw a rock at his nose. He stumbled a little - Kristoff ran and tried to snatch the axe away from him.  
To no avail. All Ronald had to do was force him to backtrack with a fireball.  
Hans arrived on the scene, sword raised and ready to attack. Ronald realized he was surrounded. He panicked, and the flames grew like a storm around him.   
Felix and Hans hid behind a large oak while Anna and Kristoff ran away.  
Vanellope realized Ralph couldn't run. She teleported on his back, trying to shake him awake. She realized that even if she _did_ manage to wake him up, the flames would consume them before they could escape.  
She panicked, and teleported again. But she was still grabbing the fabric of Ralph's cape when she did, and so she took him with her.  
It was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It was not like carrying a deadweight, it was as if she weighed as much as their weights combined. Not exactly painful, but definitely unpleasant, and impossible to control.  
She dropped Ralph a few yards away and fell on his belly, breathing heavily.

'Kid! You saved me!' Ralph shouted in a surprised tone.

'Did I?' She asked confusely.

'Watch out!' Anna screamed from the distance.

Ronald was striking again. A huge flame was growing on the ground and progressing towards them. Ralph sprung in a sitting position, hid Vanellope in his coat and shoved his wrist in the fire. He could feel his skin burn, but soon enough the flame died.  
At which point Hans came out of nowhere and attacked Ronald with his sword, gracefully dodging the flames and trying to disarm him.

'I'll get some snow for your hand,' Vanellope offered.

'Thanks kid,' Ralph replied.

Anna and Kristoff walked towards them stealthily while Vanellope buried Ralph's right hand in snow.

'Is there any way we can beat this guy?' Kristoff asked. 'Or should we run?'

His gaze was fixed on Ralph. Though he didn't know him, he understood he was the one who knew the most about the fire deviant, and probably their biggest ally in this dire situation.

'We can't leave Hans behind,' Anna said worryingly. 'And he can't hold off that man forever!'

Ralph realized he was their last hope. He had to do _something_.

'Does any of you have any gold on them?' He asked hopefully.

'I wish,' Kristoff replied.

'I don't really bring my box of jewelry when I travel in a war-torn kingdom,' Anna explained sarcastically.

'Anything would do, even a little ring!'

'A ring?'

Anna took off her glove and examined the engagement ring she had gotten from Hans. The jewel would be useless, but the base was gold, and probably pure gold.

'Perfect!' Ralph said. 'Can I have it?'

She reluctanly gave it to him. Hans would understand the situation called for desperate measures. It looked ridiculous in Ralph's enormous hand. Everyone was staring at it. The giant seemed to be thinking.

'I'll need your scarf as well, thank you,' he said as he took it from Anna's neck without ceremony.

He made it go through the ring and tied a knot at the end.

'Right. If we tie this around his left arm, that should block out most of his powers.'

'But he won't let us,' Vanellope objected.

Behind them, Hans was forced to retreat. Ronald was free once more and the brazier was expanding.

'Not like I was gonna ask politely anyway,' Ralph replied darkly. 'All right guys, you'll have to cover for me. If he manages to burn the scarf, we'll be in a pretty bad shape.'

'Understood,' Kristoff answered.

Ralph held the scarf in his left hand and marched towards Ronald, holding out his right wrist in front of his head. The gold shone in the dim light.  
Ronald looked lost at this point. He didn't control his power, even remotely. He held his axe high in the air, ready to strike. Anna threw a stone that hit his hand and made him drop it. As a retribution he sent a burst of flame her way, which Ralph blocked with his right wrist.  
He couldn't help but let out a shriek of pain. The bracelet protected most of his skin, but his fingers ached. Vanellope teleported onto his shoulder, dropping some snow on his hand, before disappearing again.  
Kristoff and Hans attacked simultaneously, one holding a wood branch, the other one a shiny sword. Ronald ducked the blows, and his face came in contact with Ralph's massive fist.   
He collapsed and the flames vanished once more. Ralph quickly tied the scarf around his right arm, and Anna made sure that it was tight.  
Ronald was still struggling, and little sparks seemed to be erupting from all his body. Kristoff was restraining him, but was powerless to calm him down.  
At which point Felix arrived. He seemed worried.

'He is in a lot of pain... let me through,' he ordered quietly.

Kristoff shrugged and got out of his way. Felix rested a hand on Ronald's arm. The deviant immediatly stopped struggling, and seemed to fall asleep.

'This is all I can do,' Felix explained sadly.

'It's... impressive actually,' Kristoff replied.

'Thanks.'

'The forest is ruined,' Vanellope commented.

'I'm sure it was really pretty before, what a shame,' Anna said.

'At least we got rid of the snow for a bit,' Hans replied.

'It'll come back sooner or later anyway,' Felix said. 'I have to thank you all for saving me,' he added, adressing the whole group.

'Our team work was incredible,' Ralph replied, winking at Anna and Kristoff.

'Oh and before I go, what is it you wanted to tell me, Ralph? Vanellope said you had some kind of... big revelation to make.'

'Oh, right! Felix, this may seem weird to you, but... I think I'm your brother.'


	9. Intermission

After the fight against Ronald, Ralph, Vanellope, Hans, Anna and Kristoff had all been invited to Felix's house to discuss what had happened and what to do next. But Felix and Ralph had quickly left the table to talk about a more personnal issue.

'So... what makes you think I could be your brother?' Felix asked, sitting on top of the staircase.

'It's when your dad called you junior! I didn't get it at first, but that means your dad is also called Felix, right?'

'Yes, indeed, but I don't see...'

'My dad was called Felix too! And once I figured that out, everything came back. The house, the village, the garden, I'm sure this is the place I grew up in!'

Felix seemed to darken a little. He looked away, opened his mouth as if he was going to say something and then gave up.

'What's the matter?' Ralph asked.

Suddenly he felt worried. Sure, he _liked_ Felix, but it hadn't occured to him that it might not be reciprocal. But it was entirely possible, after all, not that many people had liked Ralph in his existence.

'It's just... when I was little, my parents were despised by the other villagers,' Felix explained. 'When I asked them why, they said my big brother had done something horrible and cast dishonor on our house. When I asked them where my brother was, they said... they told me he died.'

Ralph felt as if a knife had been shoved in his gut. When he was little, he always thought that his parents would rescue him from jail. When he grew up, he got a little more realistic and understood that they could only do so much against the authorities.  
But they had killed him, killed him from Felix's mind. Why? Why did they feel the need to remove him from the family's history?

Felix kept going.

'But as they grew older, their views seemed to change. They said you would come back one day, and make the family proud. They said they were sorry. I thought they were losing their mind, but now I have to reconsider. It could have been guilt, in some strange way.'

Ralph had his eyes fixed on their bedroom door.

'You think I should... talk to them?' He asked cautiously.

Felix nodded. Ralph was standing up in the middle of the staircase. He sighed, pushed the door open and went inside.

***

Hans, Anna and Vanellope were sipping hot cups of tea around Felix's table. Kristoff had stayed with them for about ten minutes before excusing himself and going outside, where Ronald had been tied around a tree.

'I can't believe you let that gorilla have my engagement ring,' Hans complained.

'It was the only way to stop the deviant, he saved us,' Anna quietly reminded him.

She was staring at Vanellope who had stolen a stick of butter and was using it to draw on the table's surface.

'The question remains of what we'll do of the deviant now,' Hans said. 'I suppose we'll have to bring him back to the _Dragon's Lair_ on our own?'

'Well, who else? Felix probably doesn't have clearance. But they'll open to the princess of Arendelle, for sure!'

'And how will we get there? Remember that our deal with Kristoff ends in Niceland, so we can't count on the sleigh.'

'Oh, uh...'

'Vanellope, stop ruining our host's table!'

'You're not my dad,' Vanellope replied absent-mindedly.

'Oh goodness, and why butter? Your hands are absolutely _disgusting_ now...'

'Want me to rub them on your beard?'

'Absolutely not! Who even raised you?'

Anna giggled, then left her fiancé and Vanellope alone to join Kristoff outside. He was apparently interrogating Ronald, but stopped talking when he saw her approaching.

'Any luck so far?' She asked with a bright smile.

'A little,' Kristoff confessed. 'He says the fortress was empty when he escaped. Gates wide open, no guards, nothing. So there's no bringing him back there.'

'That's... strange. Where did all the prisoners go?'

'I hoped you would know. Your sister is in charge of managing the fortress, right?'

'Well, yeah, but she shares with... oh.'

'Who?'

'Kingsley von Sugar Coast. Who declared war on her two weeks ago.'

'I guess the deal is off, then?' Kristoff asked with a shrug.

'I don't know what happens in those cases... they might have been moved somewhere else? We'll see when we reach the castle, at any rate.'

'Yeah, about that...'

'Oh I forgot you weren't coming with us! Sorry.'

'Well, the thing is...'

Kristoff seemed uncomfortable. He rubbed his chin and the back of his neck while Anna waited.

'That's twice you save my skin since the beginning of this adventure. And you do it for my ice business, too! I kinda owe you, so... my sleigh is yours, for as long as you need it. I don't have anywhere else to go, at any rate.'

He had barely finished his sentence that Anna jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly.

'Oh thank you so much! That's so, _so_ kind of you! Besides, I literally had no plan B, so you're saving my life, pretty much.'

Kristoff smiled. The door opened suddenly, and Hans walked out. Anna quickly pulled out of the embrace she had started while her driver blushed.

'What is going on out here?' The prince asked.

'Nothing!' Anna said innocently. 'We were just... interrogating the deviant. Isn't that right Kristoff?'

She elbowed him and he nodded frantically. Hans frowned. His face was covered in butter. Anna snickered.

'Vanellope did your makeup for the day, I see?'

***

Felix was cleaning Vanellope's mess in the kitchen when he heard Ralph walk down the stairs. The footsteps came to a halt. Felix stopped cleaning and walked towards the door, wondering what was going on.

Felix's house was rather small, like every house in Niceland. Ralph always looked out of place, wherever he went - the chairs were too small for him, he banged his head against the door frames, and his shoulders rubbed against the walls in the corridors. He had never looked sadder than at this instant, standing in the tiny staircase, shoulders sagging and lost in thoughts.

'So... how did it go?' Felix asked cautiously.

'It was horrible,' Ralph answered weakly.

'They didn't recognize you?'

'They did. And they looked so happy to see me, too! They kept saying how lucky they were, and how much they loved me. But it was... wrong. They acted as if they had never abandoned me, as if it hadn't been twenty years... but those twenty years, they can't expect me to just _forget_ them!'

'I suppose you have a right to be angry, but it's all right now, it's in the past-'

'I'm not angry. I just don't understand. How they can be so happy when it hurts _me_ so much?'

Felix had nothing to answer to that.

***

Felix and Vanellope cooked vegetables for everyone, using the last of Felix's reserves, while Kristoff and Ralph set the table. They all had lunch together, Hans being careful to sit as far away from Vanellope as possible. Felix entertained his guests with childhood stories, soon joined by Anna who had quite a lot in store. Ralph spent most of the meal trying not to bump anyone with his elbows. He still felt a bit shaken for meeting his parents again after so many years.  
The storm was getting stronger outside, but for a short moment they were all safe in Felix's warm and cosy house, and even though they barely knew each other, it was a genuinely heartwarming moment for everybody.

Once lunch was over, they split up once more. Anna had warned Felix that his trip would probably be useless, since Elsa didn't know how to stop her winter, but the little man was sure the situation could be improved by talking. Ralph chose to go with him - since Hans, Anna and Kristoff could bring Vanellope home, she didn't need him anymore. But they decided to bring Ronald with them, thinking the queen would know what make of him.  
They waved each other goodbye, and left Niceland. Ralph and Felix walked side by side - a rope was tied around Ralph's left wrist and Ronald's torso, in order to make sure he didn't run anyway. His limb had been fully cauterized when he had unleashed his power, and Felix had taken care of the rest of his wounds. He wasn't in mortal danger anymore.

'Guys! Wait for me please!'

Felix and Ralph turned simultaneously.

'Vanellope?' Ralph asked. 'Weren't you leaving with Anna? I thought you wanted to go home!'

'I did, but I don't want to go home just yet, I want to travel, I want to see the snow queen! We can go home after, right?'

Felix rolled his eyes.

'Ralph, tell her please.'

Ralph shrugged.

'If she wants to tag along for a little longer, I'm fine with it.'

'What?'

'Yess!' Vanellope said, jumping into his arms.

'You're sure that you wouldn't rather be with your father?' Felix asked.

'Yeah, it's gonna be a long journey,' Ralph added. 'You must be prepared.'

'I won't be a burden, I promise it on your life!' Vanellope assured.

'Oh on _my_ life, that's handy,' he replied with a chuckle.

Felix sighed.

'Let's go then.'

'Yeah!' Vanellope added. 'Let's hit the road and kick her butt!'

'Smash her face and turn her to mush!' Ralph completed.

'And then use it to make soup!'

'What kind of soup?'

'Eyeball soup!'

'Eww,' Felix said. 'This is going to be a long trip.'

'You don't say?' Ronald answered glumly.

 

All in all, Ralph was glad that Vanellope was staying a little longer. But he couldn't help but wonder how terrifying her father was for her to keep running away from him.


	10. Taken away

Anna couldn't feel her toes. She wondered if she had ever felt this cold in her life before. She wanted to wrap herself in Sven's fur and have a nap, but of course it wasn't possible. Her back ached and she could hardly see anything.  
Whatever was going on back in Arendelle, Elsa must be furious. Maybe she had just learned about her escape and was boiling with rage. Or maybe it was something else. Maybe her anxiety was striking with the stress of preparing for the upcoming war.  
Hans hardly seemed bothered by the decrease of temperature. He seemed deeply lost in thoughts. However Kristoff looked a little ill, perched on his reindeer's back above them. That made her feel slightly better, knowing she wasn't the only one to suffer.  
But of course, she only had to look around herself to realize that.  
The houses looked like tiny glaciers - the citizens only went outside when it was absolutely necessary. The whole kingdom had become a desert. A cold, lifeless desert. Elsa didn't even have to win the war ; she already had the entire kingdom on their knees.  
Or so she thought. But after a few hours of road, she suddenly felt... a little less cold. And strangely damp.

'It's raining...' she muttered in amazement.

Hans seemed to shake awake.

'What did you say?'

'It's raining! I can't believe it! It's almost an ordinary weather for the summer season!'

'Great,' Kristoff said grumpily. 'In ten minutes we'll be so soaked we might as well have traveled underwater.'

'But Kristoff, isn't that great? That means we finally have found Elsa's limits!'

'Unless her power is clashing with the one of another deviant,' Hans interrupted softly.

'Uh... oh,' Anna simply said. 'Is that possible?'

'It seems likely. We know that the deviants that were locked in the _Dragon's lair_ have been released - if one of them has the power to make it rain, it is all likely that Kingsley would want to use their power to unfreeze his kingdom, at least part of it.'

'Besides, it looks like this place was snowy not so long ago,' Kristoff added. 'Most of it has melted by now, but some bits remain here and there, look.'

Anna inspected the landscape, and had to admit that they were right. The ice wasn't completly gone - sad lumps of dirty snow remained on the sides of the road and between the tree branches.

'This is not a viable solution, though,' Hans added after a moment. 'The rain can fight the snow for a little while, but on the long term it could flood the kingdom.'

'And as soon as the rain goes the snow will come back,' Anna completed.

'Indeed. I am sorry to say this, Anna, but it seems our mission is going to be a failure. I should have thought about this sooner... if a deviant really had the power to counter Elsa's power, Kingsley would have exploited him right from the beginning. The fact that it isn't sunny right now proves that such a being doesn't exist.'

'But we came this far...'

'For nothing, I'm afraid.'

 _'Are you kidding me?'_ Sven complained.

'No, we can't... we can't give up so soon,' Anna decided. 'If anything, we could try to release the deviants from Kingsley's grip!'

'That would be incredibly dangerous,' Hans countered. 'And where would we send them?'

'Elsa would know what to do.'

'If you had followed her advice, we wouldn't be here.'

'I had to do _something_! We are not having that conversation again.'

'Keep quiet!' Kristoff hissed.

'No! I am tired of people telling me to shut up when I'm trying to-'

'No no, I mean we're in danger, shhh!'

'It's too late, they've spotted us,' Hans replied calmly.

Two archers were running towards the sleigh. Kristoff swore under his breath, and ordered Sven to turn around. An arrow missed Anna's face by a few inches.

'Take cover, in the woods!' Anna ordered frightenedly.

'What's the point now that they have seen us?'

Hans suddenly jumped off the sleigh and drew his sword. He ran towards the archers, slicing the arrows that were thrown at him.

'Stop the sleigh, we need to help him!' Anna screamed.

'I'm trying!' Kristoff shouted in return.

But Sven was panicking and didn't listen to what his master was telling him. He kept running towards the forest, taking Anna and Kristoff far away from the fight. He dashed madly between the trees, nearly tossing Kristoff aside.  
The sleigh ran into a pine, knocked some water that rained on Anna's face.   
All she could see was a blur of green and brown. She shook her head. They were climbing on a tiny hill. She didn't know where Hans was, but she had to help him, she couldn't bear to lose him.

'Anna!'

She realized Kristoff was handling her something. She grabbed the object by its handle, having absolutely no idea what it was.  
A sudden shock pushed her against the back of the sleigh. The object tore her left glove and cut a thin line in her skin.   
It was Kristoff's knife. But why had he given her his knife?  
She suddenly understood. If she cut the ropes that attached the sleigh to the reindeer she could jump out without the risk of breaking her arms or legs.  
Sven was going even faster now. They were almost on top of the hill when he abruptly turned left. Anna who was about to cut the ropes was abruptly tossed over and rolled down the hill on the other side.

For a brief moment she wished it had been snowy. Snow would have made her fall a little more comfortable. But she rolled down the hill, and her body met nothing but rocks and dirt, until a tree stump interrupted her fall.

She nearly fainted. The accumulated stress combined with the pain of the fall should have easily put her to sleep for the next hours. But a strange sense of dread, a dark intuition at the back of her head kept her from letting go.  
She opened her eyes, and regretted it immediatly. Her body was screaming. Not only was she hurt, but she was also soaked and dirty.

There was no sign of Kristoff, Sven, or Hans, but it was hard to see in the rain.  
She was in a gigantic squarish field, surrounded by tall trees. The sky was so thickly covered in clouds she would have almost believed it was night time.

She painfully managed to stand up, at which point she realized she wasn't alone. She saw one, two, three people, walking in all directions. She squinted. They appeared to be men and women, in light armor. They were dozens, no hundreds of them!

Had she accidentally landed in one of the military camps? It seemed a little too likely. Her heart sank. She was doomed. People had noticed her and were walking in her direction. As the princess of the enemy kingdom, she was easily recognizable, and would make a prisoner of choice, a bargaining tool even.

She couldn't outrun them, she couldn't hide. Worse, she _needed_ them. For all she knew, her wounds might be bad and require medical care urgently.

It was infuriating. She couldn't teleport out of this situation like Vanellope, she couldn't hit these soldiers with her big hands like Ralph, she couldn't heal herself like Felix. She couldn't fight them with her sword like Hans, she couldn't call Sven to take her away like Kristoff.  
And she could certainly not freeze these people on the spot like Elsa.

All she could do was wait. Wait to be rescued and hope things turned down all right.

She was out of options, and her mind was too exhausted to work properly. She dropped to her knees, and set one hand on the floor.

'Over there!'

'Is she hurt?'

'Help me lift her!'

Voices were coming from everywhere. She felt hands grabbing her, pulling her upright.

'Woah there, careful! Are you all right missy?'

Missy? They probably hadn't recognized her yet. It was only a matter of time.  
At which point she realized her face was stained with mud, and possibly blood as well. Her soaked hair probably didn't bear its original color and looked a dull brown to the soldier's eyes.

She could exploit this situation. If she was a nobody to these soldiers, she could find an excuse for her current condition, something that would attract their attention to something else.

'Ooh, my head...' she moaned.

'What happened to you?'

'I'm sorry,' she said in her most hopeless and desperate voice. 'I didn't mean to bother you, I was walking in the forest when a deviant started chasing me!'

'What did he look like?' A tall lady asked.

She looked like she was in charge of things.

'He was tall and broad,' Anna invented hastily, reviewing Ralph's mental image. 'With messy hair,' she added.

'A bit like this man?' Someone asked, pointing to something.

Anna turned to see what he was pointing at, and found a tall and broad man walking towards them with his reindeer. Kristoff had lost his hat, and his hair was unargueably messy after that wild escape - he must have left the sleigh somewhere in the forest.

'Seize him,' the tall woman ordered.

'Anna!' Kristoff yelled. 'Where are you?'

'Kristoff!' She screamed back, but her voice was weak, too weak to reach him.

He was quickly surrounded, tied up and taken away. Sven managed to flee into the forest, shouting desperatly.

Anna's first reflex was to rush towards him, tell the guards he was innocent, but she tripped and fell. The ground seemed to move under her body. She was in a worse condition than she initially thought. She felt people picking her and moving her into a tent, she was then dropped on the floor, where she fought to keep her eyes open for a few minutes before finally giving in.

***

When she woke up, she had been roughly cleaned and patched up. She felt slightly better, though her head and back still hurt vividly.  
The rain had stopped and it was snowing again. A woman came into her tent, bringing a bowl of hot soup. Anna had to admit she was deeply surprised by this army's hospitality. As long as they didn't know who she was... her face was still concealed by the shadows, but she should escape as soon as she could.

'Are you feeling better?' The woman asked kindly.

'Yes, thank you very much,' she replied quickly. 'Did you manage to catch the deviant who was chasing me?'

'We did, and a small group of soldiers are currently taking him to the castle. You won't ever have to worry about him anymore.'

'Oh thanks goodness...'

'Yes, those deviants really are a nasty piece of work... to think one of them was running freely, to this day! It doesn't make me feel very safe.'

Anna suddenly felt cold. Yes, naming a deviant had been a smart move - these people truly _hated_ them. But now Kristoff had been taken away, and it was all her fault. And with Hans gone, she was really all alone.

'Drink your soup dear,' the woman said kindly. 'It'll make you feel better.'

Anna nodded slightly and took a sip. The soup was cold and bitter. The woman smiled and left the tent.

Anna counted thirty seconds inside her head, then left the tent. She made sure nobody was around, then ran. It didn't matter if someone saw her, she just wanted to be out of that camp.   
Someone called after her, but she didn't even look. The cover of trees would protect her.  
It had started snowing again, although a little slower than usually. Anna was mostly dry by this point, which was a relief because she didn't want the dampness to freeze on her clothes, skin and hair. But it would still be a miracle if she wasn't ill by the end of that adventure.

'Sven?' She called desperatly. 'Sven are you there?'

There were animals in this forest, she could hear them running. That reminded her that there were bears in this region, which was not a comforting thought. Wait, but they hibernated during the cold season, it was fine. Oh, but this wasn't the _real_ cold season, so... what did they do? Poor animals must be extremely confused.  
At which point her train of thoughts was derailed when she finally spotted Sven in a small clearing. There was no sign of the sleigh, however.

'Sven! Oh, finally I find you...'

The animal gave her an angry glare. When she tried to mount him, he got away, making angry noises.

'Oh please, don't be mad... I know I messed up, all right? I know you feel betrayed. I didn't mean for Kristoff to be captured, but I know where he is, and I need you to help me rescue him. Please?'

Anna could have sworn Sven had sighed. He let her climb on his back, and started galopping right away. They left the forest and crossed the camp, knocking down a few tents and a few soldiers too.  
Anna was dirty, cold and tired. She had lost her driver, her fiancé and her engagement ring. But she was going to fix her mistakes, and restore the summer on the whole continent.

She was more than a damsel in distress.


	11. The Slicer

Elsa had felt positively awful since her sister's departure. She should have prevented it, she should have been more efficient in sending guards after her.  
She should have treated her like an adult. She should have been a better sister.  
For now she looked through the window of her dining room at the desolation that she had cast on Arendelle. She couldn't help but finding it beautiful in a way. It was deadly beauty - if one got caught in its nest, they were trapped forever.  
It really _was_ a curse. Because of her, war was looming on her kingdom, the continent was frozen and Anna was possibly in great danger.

But... was it really all bad? She couldn't contain the storm inside. The damage was already done - and the damage had come from her trying to block her power. What if instead of containing it, she let everything out?  
She suddenly left the dining room though she had barely even touched her plate. The dignitaries gathered around the table looked at her in surprise, but she ignored their stares.  
She had to see what she was capable of. And a crazy idea had just formed in her mind.  
She ran across the frozen lake. It was the quickest way to reach the proper city of Arendelle, and she couldn't possibly trip on ice. Even wearing high heels.

 _Conceal, don't feel, don't let it show..._ it was time for something new.

The citizens of Arendelle looked at her strangely as she walked through the city, unescorted. She didn't care. She had an objective in mind, and they would soon understand what it was.  
She reached the city's entrance. Kingsley wanted Arendelle? He would have to fight for it.  
She stomped the floor with her foot. A snowflake pattern appeared on the floor, and rose towards the sky. She concentrated in order to make it larger, higher, and most importantly sturdier.

There was a chanting in her Kingdom, that the ice farmers all knew. _Stronger than one, stronger than ten, stronger than a hundred men..._ that was probably a score she could beat.  
The citizens left their houses in shock, witnessing her ever-growing construction in the distance.  
The queen was crafting a barrier - the biggest wall the city had ever seen, and entirely made of ice. She added huge gates, ladders to reach the top, and observation towers.   
Now the whole town was protected. But it wasn't enough. Her power wanted more - _she_ wanted more. She had to see how far she could go. She had to give it her all.  
So she added weapons on top of her wall - huge ballistas with a stack of arrows that could pierce through the strongest armor.  
She jumped on the nearest ladder and started climbing enthusiastically. Her wall was probably a hundred feet tall and thirty feet large. She had to see what the view was like from the top. As she climbed, snow patterns appeared on the sides of the barrier, curves and spirals that twirled elegantly.  
When she finally reached the top, she took a breath of cold air. _This_ was what she was capable of. Kingsley had been a fool to think he could challenge her. And he was going to pay for that mistake.  
An idea struck her and she crafted huge snow guards in front of the gates. They would spring to life if the city was ever under attack. She equipped them with spears and shields.  
That reminded her that she could upgrade herself as well. She raised her arms in the air, turning her sparkly dress in an impressive-looking light armor. Her high heels became winter boots, he gloves became gauntlets. Even her crown changed - instead of the tiny golden object, she crafted a sturdy ring with spikes at the back.  
She was the snow queen, for better or worse, and people _would_ remember her.

She was no longer afraid.

***

When Elsa built her great wall, she deployed forces unheard of to the present day. Such an act couldn't go unnoticed - it carried all the way across the continent through a wave of pure energy. Humans were more or less receptive to it, but deviants usually were.   
Kingsley felt it from the throne he was sitting on, and it filled him with such rage that he had to leave the place immediatly. Hans felt it as well, as he was marching alone towards the castle, though he didn't react in a particular way to the phenomenon.  
Kristoff felt a twinge of excitement when the wave hit him, which quickly died after it was gone. The event left him confused as the guards brought him closer to jail.  
Anna didn't feel it, for she was too concerned about her own problems.  
However Ralph, Vanellope and Felix were hit harder by the wave, since they were much closer to where it originated. For Ralph it was a nice feeling, as if he could sense the queen's happiness and mirror it. For Vanellope and Felix it was closer to a threat, and it gave Ronald a headache. He dropped to his knees and cursed.

'Hey, what's with the hold up?' Asked Ralph, who was still linked to him by the rope.

'I dunno I just felt... awful for a second there. Dunno what went through me.'

'We're all tired after walking all day,' Felix said gently. 'How about we take a little break?'

'Great idea, my legs are exhausted!' Vanellope complained.

'But I've been carrying you for the past two hours,' Ralph countered.

'I know, but seing all this snow makes me want to sleep right away.'

'I can relate to that,' Ralph admitted.

'According to my map,' we're nearly in Arcadia,' Felix explained. 'It's a small village not far from Arendelle. We can probably sleep there for the night.'

'If the villagers don't run away from us as soon as we get there,' Ralph sighed.

'You forget this is Arendelle, the only kingdom ever to be ruled by a deviant. The laws have probably changed since the arrival of the Snow queen on the throne.'

'The laws can change, but it doesn't change what the people think.'

'We'll see when we get there.'

The village in itself was relatively quiet. It was very different from Niceland - it was filled with houses of all shapes and sizes, and decorated extravagantly.  
They quickly found a tavern.

' _Root-beer Tapper,_ ' Vanellope read out loud.

' _Open to men, women and all forms of being,'_ Felix completed.

'That means deviants?' Ralph asked.

Ronald shrugged behind him. Vanellope pushed the door open, and Felix followed her. Ralph hesitated before following them. He untied the rop from his wait, and tied it instead against one of the wooden pillars.

'Hey, what's the deal?' Ronald exclaimed.

'It would look weird if I went inside with you as my prisoner. 'Sides, we could make someone trip. So you'll stay out there for now.'

'But I'll freeze to death!'

'Oh please, stop complaining already. If you're nice enough, I'll bring you a glass of milk.'

With that said, Ralph followed Felix and Vanellope inside.  
It was like being hit by a heat wave. Everybody cheered him when he got in. There was loud music, lots of drunk people. A few strangers jumped to hug him before returning to their seats. A woman whistled, another one called him gorgeous. He blinked and blushed.

'What the...'

'This way, stinkbrain!'

Vanellope was calling him from the bar, where she and Felix were seated next to each other. He rushed in their direction, casting a few backward glances, checking that nobody was thinking of giving him a surprise hug again.

'Hey there big fella,' the bartender said cheerfully as he sat. 'What can I get you? We serve all kinds of drink, though I'd recommend the root beer. It's my speciality, but I think that's obvious!'

He then laughed for thirty straight seconds without stopping while Ralph waited patiently, an awkward smile frozen on his face.

'Are you mister Tapper?'

'I sure am, son.'

'You have anything non-alcohol...ish? I never drank alcohol in my life, so I dunno if I should risk it.'

'You've been missing out.'

'Yeah, well, I was in prison.'

'It happens. We can melt an ice cube in a glass for you, if that's what you really want. That's what we did for your friend over there.'

Felix waved lazily over a half broken glass where a huge chunk of ice was slowly melting.

'I think I'll take the root beer,' Ralph said, turning his attention back to Tapper.

'One root beer coming right up!'

'But Ralph, how are you going to pay?' Vanellope asked.

Ralph fished for something in his pocket. He drew a tiny silver coin that he carefully placed on the counter.

'I found this thing on the ground the day I met you. You think it'll be enough?'

'I have no idea.'

'It will do!' Yelled a man hanging from the chandelier.

Ralph was starting to feel a little tired with these unpredictable people.

'What are you even _doing_ up there?'

'I'm having a nap!'

'But why from the- you know what, never mind.'

Tapper dropped the root beer in front of Ralph. He eyed the brown liquid suspiciously, then took a sip.

'It's actually not that bad.'

'Can I taste it?' Vanellope asked.

'Sure.'

'Ralph!' Felix said in a scandalized tone.

Ralph stared at him for a moment.

'What?'

Felix rolled his eyes and left the place.

'I don't think he likes it here,' Vanellope commented.

She jumped from her seat.

'I'm going to dance for a bit. You come with me Ralph?'

'Sure, but I can't dance to save my life, so you'll have to show me how it's done.'

'You mean you're going to embarrass me in public?'

Ralph stared at the dance floor. There were two shirtless people, a man wearing three scarves and six hats, a woman kissing a broom and a very old man trying to shave his beard with a flute.

'Yeah, you'll never want to appear in public with me again after that for sure,' he said sarcastically.

And so they danced for a solid half hour. Ralph kept tripping, bumping into people and knocking his head against the ceiling, but nobody made fun of him. The bar was such a place of madness than acting normal was the only way to not blend in.  
Vanellope teleported all over the room, daring Ralph to catch her as she hid in more and more improbable places. At one point she joined the man hanging onto the chandelier and stole his hat.  
After a short moment outside, Felix went back into the bar to see if his ice chunk had melted just a little, only to realize a juggler had borrowed it and was throwing it on people's heads. He morosely ordered another one while a man lying seductively on the counter made inappropriate comments about the beauty of his eyes.

When the cheers and music started becoming a bit too much, Ralph and Vanellope exited the bar through the back door, and built a snowman together. It was a calm and relaxing activity which they both enjoyed greatly.

'Ralph, can I talk to you about something... personnal, for a moment?' Vanellope asked timidly.

Ralph had been expecting this. He nodded, sat in the snow and ushered Vanellope to sit on his lap. She did so, resting her head against his stomach. Strangely enough, not looking at him in the eyes made talking easier.

'It's about my father,' she started, choosing her words carefully. 'I know you want to bring me back home after we've met the snow queen, but... you'll have to stay away from him if you can.'

'You don't think we could be friends?'

Vanellope frowned deeply.

'He'll only see your hands. He'll say... something about gross deviants. Yeah, he finds them disgusting. I don't know why. But he... I think if he found you near the castle, he wouldn't bother capturing you. He'd kill you on the spot. Himself.'

'Oh boy. He really hates us that bad.'

'It's... yes. He does. He has those alchemists wizard guys... He pays them to make dome magic potions. They're supposed to destroy my powers if I drink them. But they don't work. He tested them on other deviants, and I heard their screams. I don't know what it did to them, and he won't tell me, but it's bad.'

'That's crazy! He's completly obsessed with deviants... Kid, are you all right?'

'Of course. After all, I'm a princess, I get to live in comfort and stuff, I know I don't have to complain too much. But I'm worried about my dad. I love him, you know? I want to help him, but I don't know how.'

'Kid, I wish I knew how to help you. But I grew up so far from my parents, I don't know a thing about family. All I know is... I want you to be safe. And Felix, too. So let me ask you this one thing, it's important.'

'What is it?'

'If I take you back home to your dad, do you guarantee me nothing bad will happen to you?'

Vanellope turned to face him, and smiled.

'Aw Ralph, you care that much about me?'

'Well...'

'Of course I'll be fine, he's my dad, he would never hurt me. And I'll grow up and... I'll find a way to appease him. Cool his boiling head.'

Vanellope smiled, and Ralph mirrored that smile.

'I trust you, kid. I'm sure you'll do great.'

A shadow seemed to pass on Vanellope's face, as if she was suddenly remembering something else. A threat, a danger of some sort, something she didn't confess to Ralph or anyone else. He was going to ask her what was wrong when the door suddenly burst opened and Felix ran out, panting and shaking.

'You have to run!' He screamed between deep breaths. 'There's a crazy woman, she-'

He was interrupted mid-sentence when someone hit him in the head with a big stick. He fell face first in the snow. Ralph sprung back up and held Vanellope close to his chest.  
The person who hit him was a young woman with short blond hair and angry blue eyes.

'What the actual hell, lady!' Ralph shouted, his voice dripping with repressed anger. 'Who _are_ you?'

The woman seemed to scan the area, calculating the number of exits, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of her opponents.

'My name is Tamora Calhoun,' she said sternly. 'I have been sent by his majesty Kingsley to arrest you for the kidnapping of his daughter. Now let her go before I make you regret your actions.'

'No way,' Ralph replied frightfully. 'If you want her, you'll have to go through me first.'

Her stern expression turned into a thin smile.

'With pleasure.'

She drew her right hand as if she was going to slap him. Then a thin blade grew from her gauntlet. It looked like it was made of pure light.

'Among deviants, I am known as the slicer,' she explained. 'I am sure you can find out why.'

Ralph felt the colors drain from his cheeks. That woman was absolutely terrifying. He ran away, taking Vanellope with him, but before he could reach the road, the floor split.

At first it was only a thin dark line which appeared in front of his feet. Then the line grew into a full earthquake, separating huge chunks of ground and creating a profound gap.  
Ralph jumped across it. It was stupid, he knew it, because the gap was too wide for him to reach the other side safely. Thankfully, Vanellope used her power and gave them just the little push they needed. Ralph stumbled and fell on his back, still tucking the princess in his arms.  
Tamora was watching them from the other side, apparently unperturbed by the fact that her prisoner had made the jump.

'I forgot to mention, but I don't have to bring you back to the castle alive,' she said casually. 'Your head would be more than enough, as long as no harm comes to the princess. So all in all, I think you should give up. His majesty might just be content with locking you up, when we get there. I can't guarantee it, though. Maybe he'll want to kill you personnally, or torture you for a while, who can say. But your chances of survival are stronger with him than with me, and that's saying something.'

Ralph felt a rush of anger go down his throat. This woman, who did she think she was? He got up, teeth clenched and face distorded with rage. His wrists were burning where gold was in contact with his skin. He tried to threaten and insult Tamora, but the words didn't come out right. He was in such a state of fury that he couldn't even speak coherently anymore.  
The woman's smile widened.

'Oh, so you want to bite back? Perfect. I've wanted to test my limits for a while.'

She drew both arms, and a second blade grew out of her left gauntlet.

'Ralph, no!' Vanellope screamed, grabbing onto his leg and trying to get his attention.

She realized she could no longer teleport him with her power - his presence was like an anchor that locked her in place.  
Tamora was about to strike. Ralph didn't stand a chance. He was too far to hit her, and if she could split the ground in two, his body would oppose no resistance.  
But Felix was suddenly on Tamora's back, grabbing her arms and pulling her backwards.

'Run!' He screamed desperatly.

Ralph seemed to shake awake. Without another word, he grabbed Vanellope and started running.  
Tamora yelled in fury. She kicked Felix in the nose with her elbow and tossed him away. Then she tried to slice Ralph from her a distance, but he was already out of reach, deep within the protective cover of trees.  
She groaned in frustration and turned back to Felix's shape, crawled into a ball on the floor beneath him. She was about to kick him when she realized the bruises on his nose and forehead were slowly vanishing.

'Healing powers, huh? Now that's interesting. Why hasn't his majesty heard about you yet?'

She wasn't expecting an answer, and she didn't get one. Felix looked absolutely terrified. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him high enough for their eyes to meet.

'I think I'll take you with me. Since you allowed your friend to escape, you're also going to help me find him. Do you know where they're headed? Don't lie to me or you'll regret it.'

He closed his eyes and nodded, shaking in fear.

'Good. Perfect. You know, I think we'll get along great, you and me.'

 

A few yards away, on the other side of the tavern, a half-burnt rope was tied to a wooden pillar. Ronald was nowhere in sight. He had managed to release his powers once more, and was on the run.


	12. Transformations and Illusions

Kingsley's castle was looming in the distance. Anna was exhausted, but she still had to find a way to get in and rescue Kristoff. She would after that have to find Hans, wherever he could be.  
Sven was equally exhausted. She abandoned him in a nearby forest, promising that she would come back soon. She had the strange feeling he could understand what she was saying.

As she walked towards the giant building, she had flashes of her earlier plans to infiltrate the castle. It was so simple in theory. But now she was alone, with no weapons and no available disguise, and still no magic power.  
Worst even, the only way to get inside was through a serpentine path that lead to the gates, both heavily guarded. She had circled the building, and found no back door, no accessible window, no balcony, nothing.

The only way to get inside unnoticed was to hide among a group, but there was none in sight, and she might have to wait for hours. And she didn't know if she could afford to lose that time.  
On the other hand, the beginning of a plan was starting to take shape in her mind. It was incredibly risky, but if it failed, at least she'd be in. Locked up with her most deadly enemy, but inside nonetheless.

Closer to Kristoff.

The plan was simple. There were guards securing the path that lead to the entrance, every ten yards or so. She walked towards the first one shyly, and said:

'Excuse me sir, can I have a word with the next guard? He's my husband, he forgot his scarf and I don't want him to catch a cold.'

She was hiding her mouth behind her own scarf, hoping he wouldn't recognize her. He simply nodded, and let her go. So as she arrived near the second guard, she asked:

'Excuse me sir, can I have a word with the guard behind you? He's my husband, he forgot his scarf at home and I don't want him to get sick. I'll leave as soon as I'm done.'

The second guard frowned, but let her go. And she kept going, until she reached the gates. Her plan resolved solely on the fact that the guards had to look forward all the time and didn't know what was happening behind their back. Well, also on the fact that they were bored and that she didn't look especially threatening.

The gates were a tougher issue, however. Firstly, she couldn't open them herself, because the mechanism required a man on each side. Secondly, if the guards were okay to let her walk on the path to the castle, opening the doors was a completly different issue, and she couldn't simply use the husband-who-forgot-his-scarf trick.

Luckily, she had thought of this. She would hit the guards with a statement they simply couldn't ignore. Firstly, she walked straight towards them, head raised high, taking her scarf away and tossing it dramatically.

'Good day. I am princess Anna of Arendelle and I come to surrender my person to his majesty Kingsley von Sugar coast.'

They stared at her with round eyes.

'Did you seriously...' the left one started.

'You heard me, didn't you? Now open those gates immediatly. I wouldn't want to make the king wait.'

They quickly obeyed, still puzzled after such a strange request. The other guards on the path turned around and gave their co-workers a puzzled look, but Anna was already inside.   
She heard the doors shut behind her, and stared at the main hall. She hadn't expected so much pink, for sure. It was all very elegant, almost childlike, and too big to be comfortable.  
Most importantly, it was completly empty. Which was incredibly lucky, all things considered. If Kingsley had been sitting on his throne, Anna would have looked pretty stupid. But she hadn't expected the front gates to lead directly to the throne room. It was a peculiar architectural choice.

'Uh, what do we do now?' The guard asked her.

'I'll go and meet the king of course,' Anna replied, keeping an air of royal self-importance in order to impress him.

'But... should I escort you then?'

'And if the king has other visitors, who will open the door? Stay here, I can find the king on my own. I'm not going to simply run away after surrendering myself, don't you think.'

'It makes sense,' he admitted.

Anna walked away as fast as possible without breaking her image. Her heart was pounding fast in her chest. Kingsley could be anywhere, and he wasn't the only threat. She pulled her scarf back to cover her mouth, but she knew it wouldn't be enough. If anything, it'd make her look even more suspicious.  
She found a set of stairs that lead to the basement. She figured that was where the cells would be, so she ran down, praying to not cross anybody's path.  
The walls were a dark shade of grey, and the corridors were lit by torches. It was very gloomy and dusty, but she kept running.  
She soon realized that she wasn't in a common basement. Kingsley's castle had an entire underground network under its foundations. There were abandoned cells, strange rooms full of dusty objects, statues of various animals, and very few people. She had to dodge a group of religious singers and a team of alchemists, aside from a few guards, but most corridors and rooms were empty.  
It was a very strange situation for Anna. She had never seen anything like this. She was also completly lost and confused.  
She then arrived in a strangely large room. It was far less dusty than the rest, and the torches had been lit recently. In the center was a round table full of papers, inks and feathers, bottles containing strange liquids, and surprisingly enough, plates. It looked like a research study, but it also looked like someone actually lived here. There was a small bed against a wall, a dresser, chairs and what looked like a bathtub. The walls had been damaged by something that she couldn't identify. It resembled claw marks.  
Anna was still inspecting the room when she heard footsteps coming in her direction. Panicking, she dashed to hide under the bed. She heard two men walk in, though she couldn't see what they looked like. They were arguing about something.

'I don't care for your pitiful excuses,' the first man said. 'I want the serum ready for next week, and if you don't bring it to me, I will remove you of your functions.'

Anna felt a shiver crawl down her spine. It was Kingsley. His voice was unmistakable. If he found her, she was dead.  
She felt her hands shake and her breathing intensify. She covered her mouth with a hand to block the noise. She had willingly locked herself in the devil's den.

'I apologize for the delay my king. As I informed you this morning, the serum is almost ready, but we need to run more tests. We don't have enough subjects.'

'The soldiers brought us a new one this morning, you can test it on him. His power is still unknown, but you won't have much trouble extracting that information from him, I hope?'

'Torture is usually pretty efficient,' the other man replied neutrally.

Anna's heart skipped a beat. A new deviant brought by the soldiers? It had to be Kristoff. Now she had to deliver him before he was tortured and experimented on. Or die trying. It was all her fault after all.

'Whatever you need,' the king said. 'I need to get those transformations under control, or my reign could be in peril, you understand that?'

'Are they getting worse?'

'My power is growing,' Kingsley admitted. 'Faster than I expected.'

'I will not disappoint you, my king.'

'I... sure hope so.'

Kingsley sounded less threatening, suddenly. He sounded less like a king, and more like a tired and frightened man. Anna guessed that the other man didn't simply work for him - they appeared to be on friendly terms, despite the rank difference.  
But this conversation... it was incredible. Kingsley was a deviant, and a powerful one, at that. All his speeches on the purity of the human, it was all a lie. If his people ever learned about, it would be a scandal with proportions yet unheard of. Anna almost felt dizzy.

But it wasn't all. He had mentioned transformations, and she only knew of one deviant who had the power to transform.

The shape-shifter.

The most famous deviant in history, the most notorious criminal and one of the most hated figures on the continent. The authorities had been looking for him for years, unable to arrest him despite his numerous crimes.  
He could have easily murdered Kingsley von Sugar Coast and stolen his appearance, using it to rule the kingdom in his place. That would explain the war against Arendelle - if power was what he was after, invading another kingdom was his next logical step.

And what had he said? That if he couldn't keep his transformations under control, his reign would be in peril.  
It all made sense. Keeping Kingsley's appearance at all time must be difficult, hence asking his alchemists for help.

Anna was so shocked by this sudden revelation that she had almost forgotten about her precarious situation. Her universe had suddenly been flipped upside down.  
Wait until Elsa heard about all of this. Until the _world_ heard about all this. This undercover mission had proven useful after all.

Before she even realized it, the two men had left the room. She crawled from under the bed silently and prepared for an exit, but stopped herself. This room was the main alchemist's study. Maybe it was worth inspecting.  
She opened all the drawers and extracted a few scrolls. Most of them contained step by step explanations that meant nothing to her, until she opened the last one. It contained actual papers. That in itself was impressive. Paper was very hard to obtain, and very expensive. She read the front title of the first ones.

'The Wrecker, the botanist, the invisible girl... wait, those are the deviant files we were looking for!' She realized, eyes widening.

She quickly grabbed them all and hid them inside her coat, briefly checking the other drawers again in order to be sure she didn't forget any.

'What are you doing here?'

The door had suddenly opened once more, and an irritable-looking blond woman was staring at her with a curious expression.  
Anna didn't bother to explain her presence or why she was stealing classified documents. She grabbed the blanket from the bed, threw it on the woman's head and rolled her inside it. Then she pushed her under the bed and ran away.  
The woman was screaming, but her screams were muffled by the blanket covering her mouth. By the time she managed to extract herself from under the bed, Anna was already far away.

***

The cells were cold and damp. Kristoff was sitting on the floor, sneezing every now and then. He was feeling tense. Because even though he had _technically_ been falsely accused, he really _was_ a deviant. But his power was almost invisible - he wondered anxiously if they had some way to track it or not.

Or if they would even bother _checking_ if he was a deviant or not.

He heard footsteps, and stopped breathing. Who was it going to be this time? The king again? A simple guard? The executioner? The possibilities were endless.

Then he saw her.

'Anna? Is... is that _you?'_

Out of all the people he had imagined, she wasn't very high on the list.

'Kristoff! Oh my goodness, you're here! Did they do anything to you?'

She was whispering very fast, even though the hallway was empty.  
Kristoff frowned.

'Oh _now_ you worry about me? After you put me here?'

He hadn't meant to say this, but the words had come out on their own. He was feeling cold and angry, and had to let that frustration down on someone.

'I never stopped worrying about you,' Anna admitted. 'But think positive! Our goal was to infiltrate this castle, and we have! Now all I need is to get you out of here, and...'

Kristoff could almost not believe his ears.

'Think positive? _Now?_ I'm pretty sure they're going to execute me tomorrow, but sure, let's be happy about it! And how are you going to get me out, exactly?'

'Let me think of something, there has to be a way! I managed to get this far, after all.'

'Perhaps you could use a little help?'

Anna and Kristoff both jumped. Hans was coming from the other end of the hallway, walking calmly towards them, keys in hand. Anna jumped into his arms and hugged him tight.

'Hans! How did you get here?'

'Does it matter?'

His smile was warm and reassuring, the one of a man sure of his strength, in control of the situation. He gave Kristoff a look which seemed to say _"It's okay. You did your best."_ Kristoff winced, but didn't say anything.  
Hans quickly opened the cell, and let Kristoff out. Anna showed him the deviant's files that she had managed to steal, and he congratulated her.  
Kristoff felt strangely invisible. It was moments like these that reminded him that Anna and Hans were engaged. He didn't remember why it mattered to him earlier that Anna had sent him to jail. He was just her driver. After he brought them back to Arendelle, he would never see her again.

They walked out of the corridor together. Kristoff heard something about breaking a window to escape. That raised the question of how any of them had managed to get in. But he realized he didn't really care, at this point. He simply wanted to see Sven again, and go home.

But upon taking a set of stairs, the group suddenly grew to a halt.

'What's going on?' Kristoff whispered, unable to see what was at the top.

'What is going on?' Replied Kingsley von Sugar Coast. 'I'll tell you what's going on. I just spotted two spies setting a disgusting deviant loose in my own castle. Guards! _Seize them!'_


	13. Snow-guards

The great wall of Arendelle. Ralph had never seen anything like it. It was much bigger than the one surrounding the Dragon's lair. It was much more elegant and beautiful. The queen had power, but she had this way of using it, that made her creations unique in more than one way.  
As pretty as it was, Ralph couldn't help but feeling a little nervous.

'Yeesh. Seems like the queen doesn't like visitors all that much, huh?'

'She's not messing around, that's for sure,' Vanellope replied while inspecting the gates. 'But we'll have to get inside one way or another before the crazy lady catches us.'

'Right. You're right of course. I'll, uh... I'll just knock, I guess?'

Vanellope nodded. Ralph was feeling a bit nervous, but he did it anyway, first gently, then a bit louder. After what seemed like decades, a guard opened the gates, slightly.

'What is it?'

'We request an audience from the queen,' said Vanellope who was used to these kinds of formalities. 'It's urgent matter.'

'The queen is not seeing anybody today.'

'Not even the princess from Sugar coast?'

'She specifically said, absolutely _no one_. Not even you princess. I'm as surprised as you are, if I'm honest.'

'But it's important!' Ralph pleaded.

'Perhaps, but I don't think I could let you in at any rate,' the guard replied neutrally. 'Even if the queen was taking audiences.'

'What? But why?'

'Because you're a deviant.'

'That doesn't make sense, the queen is a deviant.'

'No, the queen is a _magic being.'_

'What's the difference?'

'Look around you,' the guard replied before shutting the door.

Ralph didn't know what to answer to that.

'What a moron,' Vanellope complained. 'What are we going to do now?'

'We have to get in, she has to know that your dad is going to use the deviants against her! Once she hears her kingdom is in danger, she'll have to listen to us, right?'

He knocked on the door harder, but this time there was no response. He knocked again, and punched the gates in a fit of anger.

The snow soldiers interpreted this as an attack, and raised their spears.

'Uh oh,' said Ralph.

***

Tamora had a mission, and she wouldn't stop chasing Ralph until it was fully completed. Kingsley rarely let her out of the castle, even less on her own. She wouldn't disappoint him, because she had a debt to repay.  
Meanwhile, Felix was very unhappy. He had left his beloved village for nothing, and after finally finding his brother again after years, he would have to say goodbye to him once more, as he was taken to jail. It was unfair.

And there was the case of Ronald, wherever he was. Someone would probably untie him, and if he managed to persuade them to remove the scarf which concealed the ring, his power would be set loose once more.

On top of that, Felix was cold and tired. His feet were aching, he couldn't feel the tips of his fingers and toes and his nose was red.

Tamora didn't care about any of that. She had tied his hands together with a rope, and was holding the other end, forcing the little man to follow her pace. And she was fast, despite wearing an armor. She hardly seemed bothered by the weather, or the cold, or anything.

As if she was more than human.

'Ma'am please, I need a break!' Felix begged after hours of incessant walking.

The woman ignored him. Maybe she hadn't even heard him.

'Why do you even need to capture Ralph? He hasn't done anything!'

Still nothing.

'Sure, he _may_ be with the princess, but he didn't capture her. He found her by chance. He saved her!'

'You're wasting your breath,' she replied calmly. 'I am only here to fulfill my king's orders. He asked me to retrieve his daughter and bring the deviant to him, and it will be done. There's nothing more to be said.'

Felix remained silent for a little while. He hadn't expected that kind of answer.

'So you don't even care if Kingsley imprisons an innocent. You only care about your mission, and it doesn't matter if it's immoral.'

'I have faith in my king. He wouldn't send me on a mission if it wasn't something important. Clearly, he knows something that you don't.'

'About Ralph?'

'About the _Wrecker_.'

Felix grew paler.

'What does that mean?'

'Are you sure you want to know?'

'Yes.'

'Very well then. Your friend... is one of the most dangerous deviants on the continent. You are aware that he just escaped from prison?'

'Well, yes but...'

'Don't you think he was put there for a good reason?'

'He told me he was innocent,' Felix mumbled.

'Of course he would. I am not, myself, aware of what he did to deserve to be locked in the fortress. But he is by far too dangerous to be kept free.'

'But why?'

For the first time since the beginning of this conversation, Tamora actually turned to look at him, briefly.

'He destroys. He doesn't need weapons of any kinds: his hands are the weapons. Buildings, mountains, iron, gold, nothing can resist.'

'But he would never use his power for evil. He's kind and caring!'

'Sure, but for how long?'

' _What does that mean?'_

'Oh, nothing. Just think about what happens if he ever unlocks his power. He'll be able to get his revenge on all of those who hurt him. He'll be able to get everything he wants, whenever he wants, and who will be there to stop him?'

She handled him a little file written on paper.

'What is this?' Felix asked.

'Can you read?'

'Only a little.'

'You'll find anything you need to know in here. Those are notes taken about his behaviour inside the fortress. Frequent mood swings, anger management issues, long term frustration... it's all in there, you can trust me.'

Felix was staring at the little piece of paper in awe. From what he could tell, everything was true. Ralph really _was_ dangerous!

'I'm so sorry, I had no idea...'

'It's all right, I understand. Now give me the file, we're almost at the castle.

He did as he was told, gazing at his feet as he gloomily kept walking. What was he going to tell Ralph next time he saw him?

***

Ralph's first reflex was to grab Vanellope, the second one was to dodge the blow. Sadly, he was too slow. The spear pierced through his left shoulder, thus causing a cloud of frost to capture his upper arm. He didn't fear the cold too much but this was properly unbearable. Squeaking pathetically, he fell on his butt, kicking bits of snow in the air with his stubby feet.  
Vanellope teleported him back to his feet. He could give her that - she had gotten much better at using her powers.

'Thanks kid,' he breathed fast, assuming a defensive position while she jumped from his hand to his shoulder. 'We'll have to kick these snowmen into the wall, I think.'

The left snow-guard struck him once more, but this time Ralph was ready. He dodged the blow by spinning on his own axis, and brutally slammed his fist on the creature's head.

He heard a cracking sound, but that was it. The creatures were tougher than what he had expected. He jumped backwards before another blow could hit him in the gut, taking a moment to catch his breath. The two guards gathered and walked towards them both, silently.

'Say kid... can't you just... teleport us beyond the wall?' Ralph asked eventually.

'I can teleport _myself_ , for sure! But I'm not sure if I can take you, that's the issue. If we can avoid it, that'd be great. Unless you're willing to take the risk to get stuck inside?'

'I think I'll pass.'

Ralph charged, head lowered, fists clenched. He jumped in the air, counting on Vanellope to elevate him high enough to stomp the right guard with his foot. She understood what he was trying to do without him even needing to state it out loud.

This time, his foot made a satisfying crunching sound. Half of the snow-guard's head collapsed on itself, and he landed safely behind his back.

But the other guard reacted faster than Ralph would have expected, and struck him in the chest, then in the legs. The giant's whole body was getting covered in frost, and he could barely move. He managed to take two awkward steps backwards, but his back bumped against the gigantic ice wall. He was cornered.

Vanellope disappeared from his shoulder, and he didn't see her reappear anywhere. He figured she must have crossed the wall - now he had to defend himself alone.

But the snow-guard kept striking him, and his body was soon completely trapped in ice, safe for the head. He couldn't even move his smallest toe.

'Oh boy...' he complained. 'How did I let this happen?'

He tried to shake free, to use all of the strength in his muscles, but to no avail. The ice was simply too thick. The cold was making him feel numb. The half-broken snow-guard was standing completely still, apparently no longer able to take action. But the one that was intact was now aiming for his head. He closed his eyes, waiting for death.

But Vanellope suddenly reappeared, and fell on the snow-guard's face, punching and kicking him with her tiny fists, while yelling insults. For a moment, the guard seemed confused, but it soon managed to grab Vanellope's neck, in order to make her stand still. Ralph was waiting for her to teleport away from his reach, but she suddenly went limb, as if the cold was sucking out all of her energy.

The snow guard raised its spear, aiming for her eye.

'NO!' Ralph screamed in terror. 'KID, MOVE!'

She was beyond him, beyond his voice's reach. Ralph felt immense pain growing in his chest. The pressure of guilt was compressing his heart - what an idiot, he had brought a child into battle! This was all his fault!

Something deep within his gut reacted. The fires of rage were storming in his stomach, melting the ice that was restraining him. The bracelets around his wrists were properly heating up; they had never been more painful to him. He groaned in pain, and the miniature glacier shattered. It was shrinking and getting distorted, until it finally broke.

Ralph leaped forward immediately, punching through the snow-guard's arm, shattering it instantly. He caught Vanellope with his left hand, and collapsed onto the guard brutally.

When he got back to his feet, there was nothing left but sharp icy fragments on the ground. Vanellope seemed to have lost consciousness. He tucked her into his coat delicately, trying to call her name multiple times. She was still breathing, but she was dangerously cold.

He turned around and faced the gigantic door. Now he had to get inside, no matter the cost.

'Great... let's go, I guess, eh? Watch out Arendelle, Ralph is on his way.'


End file.
